Bavaria

One of the best parts about Christmas in Europe is the Christmas Markets!  Every year in early December, David and I head to Hyde Park and Southbank to stroll through the London stalls, sipping on mulled wine and eating sweet crepes.  In the past, we’ve also visited the Bratislava and Moscow markets.  And this year we were lucky enough to be in Budapest when theirs began.

The best markets are in Germany, though, so last week we took a trip to Bavaria to experience them first-hand.

Even though we had been up since 4 AM to catch our flight, 

I still love this picture of us

Nuremberg hosts the largest market in Germany, but we also wanted to visit a smaller Bavarian village to get away from the hustle and bustle.  We’d heard great things about Rothenburg so we took the train to the Tauber Valley and spent a couple of nights there.

Rothenburg was picture-perfect.  The city is one of the only walled medieval cities still in existence.  Very little has changed since the 1300’s.  Inside the walls, picturesque gingerbread houses line the streets, Christmas stores surround the central marketplace, and the landscape is dotted with church spires.

It was kind of strange to take a vacation for the sole purpose of shopping and eating, but because Rothenburg is such a small town, there wasn't much else to do.  We slept in late every day, only getting up before 10:00 to enjoy the breakfast part of our B&B.  At night, everything closed at 8:00, even the market, so we were forced to do nothing – just relax.  

We spent the days wandering along the medieval walls, visiting the churches, and took a tour of the former abbey to see the oldest kitchen in Germany and artifacts from the 1200s.  And of course we shopped and ate… a lot!

Potato pancakes - my favorite!

David and I love German food!  We feasted on buttery wild garlic baguettes, potato pancakes, apple strudel and fritters, chocolaty gingerbread, bratwursts, schneeballs (German funnel cakes shaped into snowballs), wiener schnitzel, potato dumplings, cheesy spaetzle…  and washed it all down with eggnog, gluhwein, winter beers, kinderwein, and apple cider.

On Friday, my cousin Dieter took the train out to meet us.  It was perfect timing because Dieter just graduated from brewery school (congratulations!) and was heading home to Minnesota on Monday.  It was really sweet of him to spend one of his last days in Germany with us.

Cousins in matching coats

After walking a third of the wall and having lunch at the market, we decided to check out the Torture Museum.  This is one of the top attractions in Rothenburg, and gave great insight into the life of a criminal during the Middle Ages. 

Anyone could’ve been a criminal back then.  No evidence of any kind was needed – just testimony from two people was enough to sentence someone to death!  And if you didn't die, you were often subjected to some strange punishments.  From chastity belts to shame masks to torture chairs.

Dieter and David demonstrating how they would strut around 

if they had to wear one of those stupid masks

One of the contraptions we discovered was a chair suspended over the river.  Its purpose was to punish bakers whose loaves were not the perfect weight and size.  The baker was strapped inside the chair and repeatedly dunked into the icy river.  An early form of water-boarding for baking a bad batch of bread!

On Saturday we finished off our city tour by walking the remainder of the wall and then shopping for some last-minute gifts.  Usually smokers and nutcrackers are collected over the years, but we weren't sure when we’d be back so we went a bit overboard and picked up nine of these little wooden men.

That afternoon we took the train to Nuremberg and were met with a totally different Christmas market experience.  Every year over 2 million people visit the market. 

It was so crowded.

We were glad that we had visited Rothenburg because it was much more low-key but still offered all of the same German specialties.  Nuremberg was too crazy.  We should’ve known because when we were trying to book a hotel, we got the last room at the Sheraton.  And we booked over a month in advance.

The market starts near the train station at Frauentor Gate and meanders all the way through the pedestrian streets to Hauptmarkt, the main square.

Frauenkirche 

We had dinner at the market but that was it.  We decided to try again on Sunday morning, hoping it would be less crowded.  But even with the terrible rainy, cold weather, it was still packed.  So we picked out the last of our smokers and nutcrackers, had some snacks, and then headed to the Toy Museum.

After lunch at a traditional bratwurst restaurant, it was already time to head back to London.  We weren't too sad about ending our vacation, though, because we knew our families would be flying over to England in just a couple of days! 

Have a very happy holiday season – we’ll see you next year!

Hungary for Thanksgiving

Well… it wasn’t exactly Thanksgiving.  David and I really wanted a home-cooked meal on Turkey Day, so we headed to Budapest the weekend before instead.  That way, we could spend Thursday with Karen cooking and eating a traditional dinner.

Budapest is part of the Hapsburg triumvirate – three cities ruled by the Hapsburg dynasty.  Since we had recently visited the other two, Vienna and Prague, we decided to check out Budapest too.

While it wasn’t our favorite (Prague wins the top spot in our book), Budapest was still really fun.  It’s more of a big city, like Vienna, and since we were only there for three days, we booked a city bus tour on Saturday to see all of the highlights.

On Friday after we flew in, we walked to Vaci Utca, a popular pedestrian street. 

We window-shopped and had lunch at Café Gerbeaud.  This is the most famous coffeehouse in Budapest and serves amazing desserts.  The hot chocolate was so thick, it was like pudding.  I think out of all European foods, I will miss the hot chocolate most when we move back.  They don’t have warm chocolate pudding over here, but the hot chocolate more than makes up for it!

David's layered caramel latte

We then walked all the way down Vaci Utca to Central Market.  This marketplace has everything!  The bottom level is mainly produce, meats, and delicacies while the top floor houses souvenir stands and cafes. 

Eating a cherry strudel from one of the stands

The original Central Market

Then we walked across Liberty Bridge to check out the Gellert Baths.

Budapest is known as the “City of Spas” because there are 80 hot springs running through it.  The Romans built up the town around their baths just as they did in England.  The Gellert Hotel has a great spa and bath complex, but because the Turks occupied Budapest for so long, the traditional baths are like Turkish baths.  I wasn’t going through that again, so David and I played it safe and booked treatments in the comfort of our hotel’s spa instead.

No more Turkish baths for us, thanks!

After turning down the baths, we walked through the Jewish quarter back to our hotel.  70,000 Jews were kept in the ghetto surrounding the Great Synagogue during WWII.  20,000 were killed and around the city, there are memorials dedicated to the victims.  The synagogue is massive and holds the title of largest in Europe. 
   

That evening we had dinner at M.  We had heard good things from our friends and Timeout magazine, so we booked a table.  We were glad we had, because it was really crowded on Friday night.  It was a neat little restaurant that served traditional Hungarian dishes.  David and I both had the potato soup to start, and then I had the chicken goulash with homemade noodles while David ordered the boeuf bourguignon.  For dessert, we split the quince strudel.  The portions were enormous for the price we paid… we need to start splitting meals more often!    

We spent Saturday morning before our city tour at the hotel spa.  The Corinthia has a beautiful indoor pool bordered by a couple of jacuzzis, steam rooms, and saunas.  We tried out everything, and then ordered lunch before being picked up for our tour.

Taken from the hotel website, this is the indoor pool at the Corinthia

First stop was the Parliament building.  This is one of the largest Parliament buildings in the world, modeled after Great Britain’s on the outside.  Visitors are only allowed inside as part of a tour, and they sell out fast, so we were glad we had secured our spot weeks ago. 

Ready for our tour!

The crown jewels being guarded

The House of Lords, no longer in use today

Apparently it's really difficult to change the lightbulbs in that 

chandelier so they never turn the lights on 100%

Entrance Hall

Then we drove to Heroes’ Square, containing the Millennium Monument from 1896.

After that we headed down Andrassy Street past St. Stephen’s Basilica.

The hand of St. Stephen, 

the first Hungarian king to establish Christianity in the country

Budapest was originally two separate towns – Buda, a hilly residential area in the west and Pest, the densely populated city center on the east side of the Danube.  Chain Bridge was the first permanent bridge across the river, but during WWII all bridges were destroyed and had to be rebuilt.  We drove across Chain Bridge up to the castle in Buda.

We got off of the bus to walk around Matyas Church, a 13^th century church that was the scene of Hungarian coronations and royal burials.  

Next to the church is Fishermen’s Bastion, a really nice monument to Budapest’s Fishermen’s Guild.  It offered some amazing views of the city at dusk.

View of Parliament from the Danube

Our final stop was the Citadel to get a great panoramic shot of Budapest lit up at night.

There were only two other English speakers on the tour, an American couple currently living abroad.  After the tour, the four of us went to the Christmas market in Budapest’s main square, Vorosmarty.  Usually the markets kick off a bit later, but they opened in early November this year!  Great news for us!   

The sausage with spicy mustard and stuffed cabbage were so yummy!

Giant pretzels - delicious!

This is not in the Christmas spirit!  

These Murder posters with the creepy clown were 

plastered EVERYWHERE around the city.

David is saying, "Murder?  Murder me?!"

Sunday was our day of relaxation.  We spent all morning in the spa and then had a couple’s massage (told you I’m hooked now)!  The receptionist recommended a man for me and a woman for David, which at first I thought would be totally awkward, but it ended up being fine after about 5 minutes.  Our eyes were closed the whole time anyway so it’s not like we were sneaking funny faces at each other.

We had lunch at Callas next to the Opera House.  This café was delicious!  Best meal of the trip!  I had veal medallions in paprika gravy with bacon wrapped cheese curds, while David had wiener schnitzel.  Obviously mine was better.

And to end our day of relaxation, we flew first class back to London.  Never, ever, ever would I waste money on a first class ticket but when we booked our flights on the British Airways website, the return flight was completely sold out.  (We have been procrastinating like whoa with our travel plans lately, so this was a big wakeup call for us!)  We checked out Expedia and Cheaptickets and some other travel websites and it turned out the return tickets in coach were the same price as the only first class tickets remaining at BA.com.  So we decided if we’re going to pay the same amount, we’d might as well take the better seating option! It was better seats and a much better meal, but overall not that big of a deal for a short 2 hour flight back home.  

Like at the end of all of our trips, we didn’t want to go back to the real world, but at least we have Turkey Day to look forward to this week!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My Best Friend's Wedding - The Sequel

Cristy always said she was going to have a beach wedding, and a few weeks ago, she made good on that promise and said “I Do” to Jon Simon on the shores of Southern California.

David and I were more than happy to escape cold, dreary London for sunny, warm Cali. I flew in early to spend a few days with Katie and Cristy at the St. Regis.

The three of us booked our flights to arrive in San Diego at the same time, and after picking up our rental car and miraculously fitting all the luggage (including Cristy’s gown) into the trunk, we had a quick lunch in Little Italy and then drove up Highway 1 to Monarch Beach.

We had a lot of fun experimenting with the 

new iPhone panorama camera at the hotel

The St. Regis was beautiful! Thank you, Katie, for using your hotel points to get us a great deal!

After checking in, we immediately went down to the pool, ordered some girly drinks, and soaked up the sun while catching up!

When we got back to our room, there was a sweet treat waiting for us…

The staff at the St. Regis was so nice! When we checked in, they asked if we were there for any special occasion, so we told them it was a short getaway for our birthdays and Cristy’s wedding. Katie’s birthday is the 7^th, mine is the 9^th, and Cristy’s is the 12^th so we always try to celebrate together. It’s amazing that living so far apart, we’re still able to do this. We’re already planning Hawaii 2014 for our 30^th birthday celebration! Can’t wait!  Let’s see if we can all hold off on the bebes until then… 

That night for dinner, we had more yummy surprises waiting for us! We ate at Motif overlooking the resort’s pool, golf course, and the ocean.  We had a cheese plate to start (which was weird for me since in Europe we usually have cheese for dessert), then I had the lobster risotto with truffle foam, Cristy had the salmon, and Katie had steak. My stomach was still stuffed from all of my fast-food adventures in Connecticut the weekend before, but I managed to eat about half of my risotto.

Then came the good part!

We were way too full to order dessert, but before we could object, our waiter brought us each our own bday treat, and a cake for Cristy’s wedding. 4 desserts total – not to mention the cake up in our room! 

Doesn’t this wedding dessert look like it has teeth?

The next morning we woke up ready for a day of pampering! We had lunch by the pool and then headed to the spa for massages.

I had never had a massage before that day. Shocking, I know. I had the Turkish bath massage, but that was an entirely different experience. Most of my girlfriends are obsessed and always berating me for being outta the loop, but now I’m hooked!

We popped open a bottle of champagne to enjoy with our mani/pedis.  

That afternoon we checked out and headed back down to San Diego to check into our Del Mar hotel closer to the wedding festivities. David arrived a few hours later with our friends Margarita and Marisa from Houston. I said hi to David and then bye, as it was time for Ladies Night at Lips!

Lips is a bar/restaurant run by a group of hilarious drag queens. I’d never been to a drag show before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I was thrown right into it because they started the show off by asking who traveled the furthest to be there. I pretended not to hear, while Margarita, Marisa, and Katie started screaming, “London!” Another woman called out “New Jersey,” but the host heard my girlfriends and declared “London’s further, bitch!” before dragging me out of my seat and over to the bar for a free shot.

I don't know what's going on with her/his makeup in this pic...

Then they did birthday celebrations, so Katie and I were gifted a cupcake to share with our table before being pulled back onstage to dance around with the "California Gurls." Then we had to introduce ourselves.

Parental Advisory Warning: This video contains some bad language...

P.S. Katie and I look TINY compared to the queens

I swore I wasn’t going onstage again after that, but after dinner we played Bitchy Bingo and guess who won? So I got back up there to claim my free T-shirt.

I thought I was done for the night, but after the show and dinner and bingo, our whole table got one last pic with our waiter? waitress? I don’t know… What I do know is it was a ton of fun. Thanks Margarita and Marisa for planning girl's night out!

The next day we toned things down a little, and David and I had breakfast with Barbara, Jeremy, and Kassandra before heading to Escondido to visit my grandparents. We hadn't seen my dad’s parents since we took a Spring Break road trip to CA and Vegas when we were juniors in college. It’d been way too long!

Grandpa and Grandma looked great and the house was bright and beautiful, just like we remembered. We chatted at home for a while before they treated us to a belated birthday lunch at the Beach House, our favorite restaurant on the water.  

That night we had the rehearsal dinner back at the Hilton.

Bridesmaids

Margarita, me, Marisa, and Katie

After dinner, we hung out with Cristy before wishing her a great night’s sleep on her last evening as a single lady. She slept great and came into our adjoining room the next morning bright-eyed and ready to go!

I love that sign outside the door!  Such a nice way to say 'leave us alone!'

Dave and David went on a 5-mile run with the groom and some other friends while the girls were spoiled next door with more massages, mimosas, hair, and makeup.

These are the cutest bridesmaid gifts - 

Tom's that say "Do Small Things with Great Love"

Cristy and her Mom getting ready

The guys came back a little while later with giant breakfast burritos from Roberto’s. I couldn't turn down the hash brown burrito, but when it was time to get in my bridesmaid dress, I definitely had a burrito baby. Good thing the dresses were black! Cristy was sweet enough to let us each pick out our own, as long as they were black. Each girl’s personality definitely showed through her choice in dress!

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect and the location was stunning in a park overlooking the beach.

The most adorable ushers ever!

The most adorable husband ever!

The Texans

And the reception was… well it was really, really fun. I had a little too much fun. Actually, way too much fun.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

Cheese!  

I didn’t realize that ridiculous block of cheddar would take over the shot!

Why is David a rasta again?  And where did Dave go in the second shot?

Cristy was a little scared during the Hora...

Jon was much more comfortable up there.

Katie's maid of honor speech

The Dave's and Jon

Instead of a cake, there were a gazillion cupcakes to choose from.  

And then later they brought out mini creme brulees.  Yum!

This was the first Pinterest wedding I've been to and it was awesome! Where was Pinterest when I was getting married? Cristy took all of the photos for the table numbers herself - she's a great photographer.

Whose foot is this?  And why am I holding it?

Margarita and me "resting" at the bar…

And then we got our second wind and got back out there!  David and I danced “gangnam style.” He was the horse, and I was the rider. Cristy and Jon said their photographer has a great shot of us galloping around the dance floor. I’m not sure I want to see that… And why do Margarita and I look so angry dancing (especially me)??

We even got the bartenders out on the dance floor!

We survived!  

Katie and me soaking our sore feet in the tub back at the hotel. 

Dave asleep with the mac ‘n cheese… Cristy and Jon did a midnight snack at the reception, and there was a ton of leftover mac ‘n cheese. Katie couldn't let it go to waste, so brought it back with us, and then David wanted an “artsy” photo.

Miraculously, the next day at the zoo we actually felt pretty good!

Marisa the panda, Margarita the lion, and me the giraffe

Cristy and Jon invited everyone from the wedding to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday after brunch. There were so many people there, that Cristy borrowed my animal-print umbrella so no one would get lost. 

Just like a real tour guide!

Watching a panda eat its bamboo lunch

Congrats again, Cristy and Jon! Thanks for making us a part of your wedding. We are so happy for you two!