Our Europa: So ist das Leben Schön

Flying home in style

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 10:06:34 -0500

Our flight home on MaxJet was very nice.

The business class treatment was a far cry from the uber-economy class flights we had taken around Europe. It was a nice way to think about all that we'd done and seen in the past two months.

We got in at 1, took the subway home. Arrived at home around 3. And spent the rest of the day jetlagged and unpacking the tons of junk mail, boxes we'd sent home, and our luggage.

Man summer flew. What a fun adventure.

We will be putting a lot of the photos on our photo blog. They're not up yet, but we invite you to bookmark http://www.troywass.com for those galleries.

Keep in touch!
Erica and Troy

Moving toward home

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 10:00:27 -0500

Upon leaving Dachau we went to the Munich Airport. The plan was to arrive at London's Stansted airport and then kill about 10 hours before checking in for our flight.

Dachau

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:57:33 -0500

A note: This is a rather serious post, we noticed upon reading it before posting it. I think it's necessarily so, noting the subject matter.

We had wanted to visit, or, felt the need to visit, a concentration camp at some point during our cumulative month in Germany. We had gone to Dachau, about 20 minutes by S-bahn train outside Munich during our time there in June, but it was closed since it was Monday. We decided to go back another time.

Munich again

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:44:54 -0500

After almost nine weeks our European adventure is coming to an end. We have spent the last couple of days here in Munich and really enjoyed our time in the city – there is certainly a different atmosphere here than during the world cup.

The Conference

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:17:33 -0500

Finally I’ve got the time to write an update. We’ve just spent the past six days in Baden-Baden, Germany working on the conference that has been in the works for the past two years. I’m really happy to report that the conference was a major success – at least that is what the attendees told us.

The Baden-Baden Kongresshaus

Goodnight Bristol...

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:13:13 -0500

With that, our time in England came to an end. We had a wonderful time staying with Lyn, Katie and Mark and we can’t wait to catch up with them all again…who knows, maybe it’ll be in NYC.
So now we head back to Germany and the final leg of our trip. We feel like we’ve got a good handle on the conference planning and look forward to returning to Baden-Baden.

Thanks for everything guys

Well Well Wells

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:03:33 -0500

The last day-trip we took during our time in Bristol was to visit a couple of places we’d been meaning to get to since we arrived.

More stones, and a white horse

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:11:00 -0500

We made it onto Avebury after some confusion. We thought we were heading for Amesbury, which is only about 5 minutes away from Stonehenge – turns out that Avebury is about 45 minutes away. The trip was something of an anti-climax because we had it in our heads that this was a town that was full of witches. Turns out there were no witches, but there was a stone circle and plenty of sheep.

Lots o’ sheep but no witches

Stonehenge

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:31:56 -0500

The first time I came to England, actually it was the second time as I came once as a youngling, I had a few things on my must-do list. One of those things was to see Stonehenge. I went out and about in Salisbury and saw quite a few of the sights surrounding the henge but never managed to make it the actual site. On this trip we were determined to make it and we did.

We made it!

Organization

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:59:08 -0500

We've organized the internal pages so that you can sort by countries we've visited if you want to read entries by nation.

Cheddar

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 04:27:15 -0500

We had a great day out yesterday as we visited the Cheddar caves and Gorge. It was quite pricey to get in (everything is quite pricey in the UK) but by the end of the day we considered it money well spent.

Katie and Erica ready for the Gorge

Mmmm…scones, fruit and cream

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 05:25:28 -0500

One of the best things about coming to England is that you get the chance to have a real afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream. I’m not sure exactly what it is that makes the cream clotted but I do know that it is thick, creamy and delicious…it is also really bad for you. But once in a while it doesn’t hurt, does it?

E, getting ready to enjoy the clotted cream - at least we had fresh fruit ;-)

A day out in Bristol

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 05:13:08 -0500

One of the things we’ve learned since we arrived in Bristol is that it is quite possible to sit around and chat for an entire day. This has happened twice since we arrived. We intended to get out and about but just never got around to doing it. Still it’s all good – we only get to catch up with this part of the family every couple of years.

Bowling Bowling Bowling

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:41:25 -0500

On Saturday Sarah and Andrew had invited MA (and us by proxy) to Sarah’s birthday party. It was unusual because we were going to go lawn bowling and then have fish and chips at their place. We were certainly game for that.

Spelunking we shall go

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:27:01 -0500

On Monday morning we arose and left town to explore Southern Wales. We did a little hike and fed ducks at an old castle, then hiked to Southern Wales’ largest waterfall. It was a bit of a curtain trickle, the summer heat wave is even taking its toll on nature, but it was still lovely.

Feeding the ducks