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Be Fabulous
At Moet & Chandon in Champagne Long time, no blog! It’s been officially 8 weeks since our last blog (I know it’s pathetic) but it’s been a whirlwind of a trip this past two months and sitting in an Internet café has not made it into the agenda…
Since we last wrote we have: Fed Buddhist Monks in Luang Prabang (Laos), haggled with con-artists in Hanoi (Vietnam), experienced ethnic village culture in Sa Pa (Vietnam), seen first hand the “thin veneer of plastic bags” that pollute Ha Long Bay (Vietnam), cycled through the Citadel in Hué (Vietnam), improved our wardrobe with custom tailored clothes in Hoi An (Vietnam), ate fresh pineapples along the canals of the Mekong Delta (Vietnam) and dodged the 6 million motorbikes of Saigon (Vietnam). We’ve slept in a kids jungle-gym in the airport in Qatar (Middle East) and powered through the amazing sights of Paris with my Dad and Cheryl seeing the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, the Palace in Versailles and Ms. Mona Lisa, while enjoying great French food and wine. We’ve drank Champagne in Champagne, Burgundy in Burgundy, and Hermitage in Hermitage…. picnicking in as many vineyards as possible along the way. We visited Lake Geneva (Switzerland) as
Monk Alms
Giving food to Monks in Luang Prabang it prepares to host the Euro Cup 2008 soccer tournament and walked the old streets of Bern (Switzerland). We ate Cheese Fondue at the Hotel Splendid in Interlaken (Switzerland) where Kelsey used to work in 2002, and the next day did our best to bike off the cheese, cycling to the two lakes (Interlaken means between the lakes) with the Jungfrau Mountain range providing an amazing background. Then we travelled to Wieden in the Black Forest (Germany), where my dad grew up, and visited all the Stiefvater family and spent time with my Dad and Cheryl again (we lost them somewhere along the wine-route in France, but hooked up again in Wieden!). While in Wieden we went trout fishing with my little cousins, ate a lot of cake and schnitzel, walked and hiked through the beautiful hills of the Black Forrest and even tried a yodel here and there. We were treated by my Aunt Gisela to 2-days and 1-night at Europe’s best amusement park (no, not Euro Disney) “Europa Park” and rode all the crazy rollercoasters at least 3 times! (P.S.- Kels is a rollercoaster junkie!) We also temporarily upgraded from our 50cc Honda motorbike in Asia to a
Red Dzao Women
All hand made in Sa Pa silver, 2-seat, convertible Mercedes-Benz Kompresor (which belonged to my uncle who passed away in 2005) while we drove around Germany. We visited my moms side of the family near Lake Constance where we ate the best Kase-Spetzle made by my Tente Senz and hung out with Ingrid and Jens and their family, saw the 600 pigs (Very, very, very stinky! But schnitzel has to come from somewhere!) at my uncles farm (where my mom grew up) and visited the small memorial in the farmers field where a portion of my moms ashes were buried. We even went to Austria for the day to hike up a mountain with my cousins and finished the day with “running sushi” (the Austrian version of Sushi Train). Also, Kelsey and I are now official residents of Germany and can therefore stay in Europe for our desired 6-months, thanks to my German passport and a wedding certificate from September 1, 2007! We are now in a town near Munich, visiting our friend Ruth (who was a Rotary exchange student who lived with us in 1996) and her Italian boyfriend Davide; we buy the wine and he makes the pasta, it’s been a lot of fun!
Proud Boats
Some of the MANY boats in Ha Long Bay Now looking forward, we will be flying to Athens, Greece tomorrow and meeting up with Kelsey’s sister Tiffany for a couple days, which we are really looking forward to! And then we fly to the Greek Island of Rhodes for our friend Megan’s birthday party and then to settle down in Rhodes for the next 4 months, enjoying the Greek Island Lifestyle…anyone want to come for a visit?
As you can see, we’ve packed a lot into the last 56 days since we last wrote and we’re sorry we’ve been such poor bloggers. I’ll get some of the pictures up soon!
Since we’ve been in Europe, we are no longer having any “tummy bug” problems as we did in Asia and are only hindered by the odd hangover due our overindulgence in the wine we missed so much in Asia. We still got big smiles on our faces, walking hand in hand, and have truly enjoyed our travels up to this point (nearly 6 months) and can’t wait for the summer in Greece! We hope this blog finds our family and friends with a little sun on their faces and we’d love to hear from all of you!
Tourists on the Mekong Delta
The hats look a lot better on the locals Until Next Time…
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ames
non-member comment
yowzaa!
i love you guys!!!!!!! your adventures sound amazing.... wanna know what else is amazing?? i'm going to be in greece on sept 15 for 8 months going to school..... so we best be going out for bevies when i get there!!! xoxox keep the blogs coming, we miss you!