Euro Trip

Inspired by fellow blogger Brian, I'm figuratively getting off my ass and writing about the trip to Europe.

This was my first trip to Europe and it served as a honeymoon of sorts. I had always wanted to go to Europe and never believed that I would actually get to go. And flying there with my husband was even better (since I never thought I'd marry either. Gee, I'm kind of a glass half-empty person, aren't I?).

Germany in the summer is wonderful especially in the region where Marc's parents live. Mutterstadt is a town next to the Rhine river and is in the middle of wine country. I'm not much of a wine drinker myself but I did enjoy seeing fields of grapes everywhere. What amazed me was that none of the fields I saw was fenced in any way. You could just go right up and pluck a bunch of grapes if you wanted to.

I can't (or don't want to) go into too much detail about what we did but here are some highlights, in no particular order:

- the best thing I had to eat in Germany was bar none the snails broiled in Kräuterbutter (herb butter) and cheese. It was so good I still dream about it.

- the Ren Fair we attended on our last weekend there. It was a lot of fun. Maybe if a Ren Fair ever rolls over to Christchurch I might be moved to go in costume.

- Wurst! I love wurst. All kinds of wurst. Sauerkraut not so much.

- My parents-in-law. They are so nice and accepting and just great people. Even though my German is confined to about 10 words we got along pretty well.

- Castles! I told Marc I wanted to see castles! He reluctantly delivered, calling them "just piles of old rocks." I liked the one in Heidelberg the best.

- The Polterabend! Meeting Marc's parents was nerve wracking enough but meeting his friends was even worse! Good thing they turned most of their attention on Marc and I was spared from any uncomfortable questioning (aside from the usual small talk). Compared to my friends, Marc's friends were the epitome of self-restraint. Hah!

- H&M! I'm not much of a clotheshorse but I made it a point to go to H&M. You know how hard it is to find a good quality white shirt? Also, you can never have too many gray tank tops. Seriously. I <3 H&M.

- The roadtrip to Italy was long but not as long as I thought it would take to cross 3 different countries. Being an island person, it's almost inconceivable to me that one minute you're driving through Bavarian hills and the next minute you're in Austria! I suggested to Marc that they put up a big Las Vegas-like sign on the border (with tourist-trap stores by the side of the road, natch). So at least you'll feel some sort of change.

- Italy to me was both new and familiar. To a casual observer, the similarities between Filipinos and Italians are never ending, with their shared love to food to the confusing roads and blase manner of following traffic laws.

- Florence! It looks just like it does in photos, only with more people than you could possibly imagine. We thought it would be interesting to see Florence from above so we climbed the Duomo's tower. By gahd, 414 step to the top! My knees were shaking and I was thirsty as hell. The Americanized consumer in me thought that the tower's operators would make a killing if they put up a stall that sold water and other little goods at the top. Why they haven't done so boggles the mind. A killing!

- Florentine Steak! Pizza! Gelato! Yum! I gained two kilos in 3 weeks! Egads!

Well that was pretty much it. And after a 24 hour flight (with stopovers) back to Christchurch, the best thing was seeing Walter again!

(sorry, no photos, blogger doesn't want to upload my pics!)

ETA: I highly enjoyed Pisa as well. It was beautiful.