Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Forget San Francisco. We left our heart in Ireland!


Strolling across O'Connell Bridge. Cruising Grafton Street. Eating corned beef and cabbage at O'Neill's. Touring Trinity. It was all part of our Ireland experience last weekend. Foturnately for us, we were there for what the Irish Times claimed was their three days of summer. Unfortunately for the UK and Ireland, this has been a soggy summer. No rain for us!




While our trip to Dublin was full of places to see, we found the Irish people to be the main attraction. Sure, all of the places I listed above were great, the friendly and easy-going people of the Emerald Isle captured our hearts. I went to a pub on Sat PM to listen to a "Seisun" of traditional Irish music and noticed a sign above the bar that read, "There are no strangers here...Just friends we haven't met yet." This sign captured the essence of the Irish way. What a welcomed departure from Germany and France. Oh yeah. The fact they spoke Englished helped too.




More to come later. Before too long, I am going to recruit Jen to post a message or two on this blog.




Greg


Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Julia's Name for Her Baby Brother

Baby Prince Phillip! Unbelieveable. Julia lives and breathes all things Disney Princeses.

Our Favorite European Cities...So Far

Jen: 1. Venice, Italy, 2. Amsterdam, Holland, 3. Salzburg, Austria
Greg: 1. Sorrento, Italy, 2. Garmisch, Germany, 3. Paris, France
Julia: 1. Disneyland Paris, 2. Disneyland Paris, 3. Disneyland Paris

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Off to Ireland and Vacation Rewind: Venice


Ahh Venice. We fell in love with this city! Last Thanksgiving, we headed down to Northern Italy to hang with our friends Brent and Maria who, at the time, were stationed in Aviano. Lucky for us, Aviano was only around an hour away from Venice. The day after an unbelieveable Thanksgiving dinner (and really good boxed Italian wine...seriously!), we found ourselves in Venice. Okay, November in Venice isn't exactly tourist season and the weather was a bit chilly but that didn't stop the droves of people from visiting this beautiful place.
Julia's favorite memory of this place was when I decided to feed the birds in St. Mark's Square by the Doge's Palace. So here's the story: I decided "When in Rome..." and feed the birds that have taken over the Square. After I paid the guy a few Euro, I was instantly covered in the world's fattest and most agressive birds. I was like an Alfred Hitchkock movie. For some strange reason, the birds left the bird feed vendor alone and as if on cue, they mobbed the unsuspecting tourist as soon as they were handed the feed. Anyhow, while I was getting mobbed, I decided to "share the love" and threw the seeds towards Jen, Julia, and especially at my buddy Brent who was having a particulary hearty laugh at my expense. Suddenly they too were engulfed by these fearless rats with wings. Good times. Here the link to the pix:
As for future plans, we are headed to Dublin Ireland this weeked! This is a place we were planning on going to for our one year anniversary but decided to put our money into buying our condo in Orange County. Probably the smartest thing we've ever done. (The dumbest thing we've done was sell that place!) On the agenda are pub crawls, good conversation with the locals, and fantastic Irish folk music. Not on the agenda is Guinness aka motor oil and touristy spots like kissing the blarney stone. Should be a good time.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Here's the deal...

This site is going to serve as an ongoing travel blog. Periodically we're going to post significant events that are not really related to travel (such as our baby on the way) but the main focus will be on the places and people we see in and around Europe. What you won't find is anything political, gossipy, world news related, etc. Too played out!

We're going to start by doing a retrospective dating back to 13 May 06 which is the date I stumbled off the airplane at Frankfurt International. Jen and I are going to recount our best and most memorable trips through short stories, interesting details, and lots and lots of pictures. In the next couple weeks, we hope to catch this blog up to the present day. From that day forward, this will serve as a running travel blog.

--Greg

Here we go!

Almost halfway done with our assignment here in Germany and I've finally decided to start keeping track of our travels. Better late than never. Either Jen or I will be updating this blog each time we go anywhere cool. More to come and come back often!