Summer in the City

Between our bouts of travelitis we have managed to eek out a little bit of fun in Berlin. It's not  a bad life

Pics of "Sommer in der Stadt"

Our U-Bahn stop for our place in Wedding

Enjoyed a wet but wonderful 4th of July with Greg, Americans, and an Irishman. We even got Greg to drink a beer!

I'm apparently working on perfecting the "Boo the night is over" Look

One of my favorite things on earth - marking with a red star where we've been on our Europe map.

Thomas visited with his friends from Brazil

We took them to Kunsthaus Tacheles. Built as a department store in the Jewish quarter, served as a Nazi prison, was partially demolished, and is now occupied by an artists collective. Continually threatened with eviction, you can now just wander in on a week night to live music, independent shops, and wild art. .http://super.tacheles.de/c​ms/

They liked it.

Also showed them around the lovely city...well they were good enough to do some self-touring too

Making an effort to take as good of photos of the city we live in as the cities we tour

Living in Wedding, we've been spending a lot more time in the more touristed downtown. It's actually kinda badass...for the West

Love the U-Bahn windows

I've taken pics of the Memorial for Murdered Jews so many times and finally have one I really like.

The Fernsehturm, Brandenburgor Tor, & Caller.

After all that Berlining, Tiergarten Quelle was in order. Visit us & we will do our best to take you here.

Dave's first going away night we ended up in the basement of a gallery where we sweatily danced as the ceiling dripped. Sounds gross, but it wasn't.

I've been bugging Ian about this for a while. I simply cannot live without an animal- and even though Bellatrix the skank cat is on her way with my parents in October, we were off to the Tierheim. Way off- this place is on the outskirts of outskirts for Berlin.

But so worth it! We got a bun. He was kind enough to carry some bottle home for us as we ran out of hands.

Prost to the new addition - Herr Schmidt

Sadly, one of the latest changes is that our Irish friends have now officially left the mainland and are back in Ireland. At least they are just a RyanAir flight away. And why is he wearing that Holocaust victim/prisoner outfit? Nice enough to give us a few of their things before leaving. I'm afraid we did not take the costume.

Bye to the Irish...until next time

As always, there are more pictures of debauchery here.

Airport Goodbyes

Oh man I love the airport. Always a bit of tension, but you know you are on your way to somewhere new. I guess that's easy for me to say as I am usually the one leaving.

My mum & dad are visiting my Aunt & Uncle in Northern California and it was so good to see them all. Video chat can often seem so intimate, regular voice chat is the route we usually take. Kinda makes days like today when I do try to look more presentable for our chat more special.

Plus- my mum reminded me to look at some shots she had posted from my nephew's visit.

Look at that handsome family! My dad, Gavin, & Kyle

Becoming One with the Tourist Hordes in Cinque Terre

We knew it was going to be bad. Italy in June-July. But Greg is a schoolteacher & Italy was his #1 destination. So we took a deep breath, loads of planning, and became one with the mass of tourists.

And it wasn't as bad as we feared. Lots of it was unbelievably awesome. And Cinque Terre, where we've been a few times before, wasn't the mass of old people and blank eyed tourists we thought it would be...ok it actually kinda was. But it is STILL so awesome we loved it. And got burnt to a crisp. A good time was had by all.

Corniglia - the unpopular village on the hill that treated us very well

Vernazza - site of our first swim

Dinner of muscles, clams, squid, and fish

Manarola - 2nd swim

Lazy cat!

Vernazza night

Manarola

Love Lock

Rio Maggiore

Porters

Rio Maggiore boats

 

Ferry ride through Cinque Terre

 

Feeling happy, but burnt. Weak English skin

Porter power!

Yes. Very burned

Meal with tortellini from Bologna, pesto from Cinque Terre

In-n-out shirt out of our window

Corniglia vista

Cotniglia

Beautiful wine bar Greg found in Corniglia

Sweet hound sends us off

Full album:Cinque Terre Pictures

Ferries, Trams, but mostly an Automobile

We're back! I don't know about a triumphant return, but an epic trip was had. And (so far) no issues with the car rental! That is true success (a little skittish after car rental in Iceland).

Truly- this no-planning vacation exceeded our expectations and proved that throwing a little money at travel really does make things easier. Who knew!? Oh...everyone? Ok, well we didn't.

We will post in-depth soon with plenty of pics & video, but as for now we have had several stressful days of driving (actually only Ian, I was a happy  passenger), lots of drinking (don't worry mum- not at the same time), and we have a Wii and bunny to attend to.

BUT if you are really curious, here are ten pics at random of our (tiny) European roadtrip.

ok- not really from the trip. But Herr Schmidt is one cute bun amiright?

No sooner had we got in the car then we took a wrong turn. Luckily, we got a unique view of the Siegessaule

Golden Stag at Schloss Drachenberg in Germany

Dinant, Belgium

Literally 5 min too late to make this brewery tour. Gr#$^^%&^! Luckily, we were able to drink some of their beer a stone's throw away and bought some beer & a glass in the shop after the tour

After finding out that Belgium's southern "cities" are literally little more than villages, we finally settled on a very pleasant hotel just outside of Chimay and drank some of it's beer to celebrate.

Colmar, France. Just south of Strousberg, this city has shared French & Germany history and is phenominal

Bamburg, Germany. More like "Damn city! You're beautiful"

Bamburg's old square hosted a beautiful cathedral

Back in Berlin! Enjoying some pils, doener, and salad with scharf sauce. Du bist so wunderbar Berlin....

Jetzt, geht's, Los: Cologne

After a whirlwind trip through England & Wales, apartment searches & scams, Greg's visit, Copenhagen, Italy, we dreamed of a sleepy vacation on a sunny beach somewhere. That takes planning. That we didn't do.

Soooooooooooo...we're off on a totally different tangent renting a car, visiting Thomas in Cologne, traversing Belgium and France, and returning triumphantly to Berlin. I'm pretty sure it will be awesome. Or a disaster. Either way- fabulous!

Update: 

Made it to Cologne! Thomas leaves this month for his service in Mexico City. Unbelievable that he won't be just across the country anymore. Damn world travelers ;) Trip to Mexico City anybody?

1st trip to Cologne 2007

Ian & Thomas Weihnachtsmarkt 2010

We are trying to firm up plans for what the next week will bring. Vague ideas of Belgium breweries, Champagne from Champagne, and Colmar- city south of Strasbourg. Let's see what we can do...

UPDATE 2:

Thomas liked Mexico so much, he dated it!... or the lovely Ivonne form Mexico City anyways. He finally came back to Germany and visited us in Berlin where we searched for ingredients for a Mexican fiesta. He is currently back in Mexico on a long vacation, so we really have to work on a way to visit him over there.

Bologna by Towers

Ratings of our  trip through Italy continue, from Bergamo to Venice to.... 

Bologna

Transportation in Bologna

Greg

4 Towers - My feet were the transportation, but after a fine new pair of Italian sandals they enjoyed it much more.

Ian 
3 Towers - Very walkable city. Can’t say I used the transportation. Buses seemed convenient and frequent. Vespas abound- ciao!

VENICE - Less Bridges than Berlin, Just as Romantic

I have important news to talk about (new bunny, another visit from Thomas) & old news to record (4th of july) BUT editing down the album for Venice has me waxing on about it again. So, a few more featured pics....

Murano is a series of islands off of Venice. Just 45 min from the city and reachable by the Vaporetto. We wanted to go to an island, but I though Murano would be old people and touristy glass pieces. I was wrong. It also had a quieter atmosphere than Venice, the place greg finally bought a glass piece, and an awesome glass sculpture.

A steady diet of gelato kept us happy

Doge's Palace (note: you can take pics of he building, but not the interior. Not that it stopped many people)

Meow in Italian

Steves strikes again! We are a follower of Mr. Rick Steve, even if we do cringe when we are in the army of book carriers. he led us right here, recommending we try a cicchetti bar where you can eat a bunch of small bites for just a euro each. We had:  

Artichoke heart
ham with pesto
seabass spread
anchovy & onion

Ian got adventures at the grocery store and got us tiny octopus.  Greg & I were nervous, but not bad!

We came around a corner and a subtle rumble became a penitentiary screaming and clanking. Right outside of Venice! I've tried to find info on it, but not knowing the name everything re-directs to the Doge's Palace etc. A mystery

Our .50 cent gondola ride, just across the river

Love Locks are apparently a custom all over the world. Sweethearts put a lock on a bridge to symbolize their everlasting love.

Pigeon kings

What's not allowed in Venice? EVERYTHING

Last look at the square

It was awesome

The complete album if our ridiculous photo taking amuses you. And our ratings of Venice. And video: