Easy Berlin

Just settled into the most efficient space on the planet: an EasyHotel cubby hole equipped with huge bed taking up half of the cubby, Philips TV that doesn't work without a 7EUR remote and chip, and a tiny bathroom whose door functions as both the bathroom door and the shower door. I'll have to take a video later- it's thrillingly efficient and mildly reminiscent of a few of my college closet-bedrooms.

We're in Berlin for three nights then off to Frankfurt Wednesday morning to catch our plane home. We secured a reservation for the train to Frankfurt so all that's left to do now is enjoy the city. It was pretty easy to populate our list of things to do: Museum of Things, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenberg Gate and Reichstag, Bauhaus Archive, Pergamon Museum and maybe the Zeiss Planetarium. We'll sneak in a lunch at KaDeWe, the continent's largest department store if our feet don't give up on us!

Unicorn Attack

After soaking up the lessons of the Museum of Communism, Chris and I ventured out into Prague's streets in search of food. (The McDonald's right next to the museum was of course out of the question.) We dipped into a bistro and enjoyed some very cheap Pilsner-Urquell, chicken with peaches, three discs of fried camembert with cranberry sauce, numerous baked and sliced potatoes and a serious mound of spinach. The food alone was enough to satisfy us but a special treat had yet to present itself.

I heard the rumblings of a song, far far away as if I was only imagining or having a flashback. No, it couldn't be. I strained to hear, cocked my head in the direction of the music and completely missed what Chris was saying. The beginning notes became louder, yet still hardly audible. Louder and louder and YES! It was the theme song from Robot Unicorn Attack, playing in a random, relatively nice-mannered bistro in Prague. For those of you who haven't heard it, I highly recommend a Google search. Fabulous! Thank you Prague!

We then of course went to see the Astronomical clock, the Charles Bridge and wander about the old medieval part of town...pale in comparison! ;)

Anyone can comment now!

Der, sorry for all the inconvenience. I have altered our blog settings so that anyone may post without signing up for a google account. That was my bad- didn't read the not-so-fine print, so to speak.

Comment away! We're like Tinkerbell- your claps (aka comments) will help bring us home.

T-Minus 7 days

Today amongst the rain and white sky, we visited the Eggenberg brewery here in Cesky Krumlov. For about 15 USD total (310 CHK) we received a tour of the facilities, two beers per person on draft and four bottled beers to take home. They are heavy, so we are doing the responsible thing and drinking all four tonight.

Our favorite of the draft beers was an unpasteurized, unfiltered "yeast" beer (which had the perfect head and I photographed, of course). We also enjoyed a dark beer brewed with carmelized and roasted hops. It might be my (Jess) favorite beer so far- as in so far in my life!

Tonight we are curling up in our cozy Krumlov House private double with new books. I scored "The Ecology of Commerce" and Chris found "The Greatest Show on Earth." (I am eager to work for Interface in Atlanta, if anyone has any connections?) We were very impressed with the English books available! Perhaps another expat... Tomorrow we're off to Prague for three days then to Berlin for our final three. Then home sweet -familiar, cozy yet horribly hot- home. Cannot wait.

Massive Upload

Hello dear followers. You might notice three new slideshows up (or folders in Picasa, however you want to view them). Most of the Munich photos and videos are from the BMW Museum. It was too sexy to restrain my camera.

Now we're settled in at our guesthouse in Cesky Krumlov. It's by far the absolute coziest place we've stayed so far. We are incredibly tempted to just stay here until we fly home. Today we spent a total of $26 USD on two delicious sandwiches, two bus tickets and one serious dinner (as the photos will attest) with two beers. Twenty-six dollars!! We're paying 35 EUR a night to stay in this little lap of luxury...it's nuts. AND there's a teeny tiny black and white cat about the place. How perfect is that?

Enough with words- off to the photos! *And don't forget that to view video, you'll need to click on the picture slideshows or the row of pictures up top. It'll take you to our Picasa Web albums.

Love you Wien

Forty-seven days later and like it or not, we're still traveling. We have nine days left before our flight home and believe me, we're counting the days. 

We now in Vienna and heading to Cesky Krumlov tomorrow. The internet has been a bit sparse the past week or so. In the absence, we visited Mayrhofen, Austria and Munich, Germany. In Mayrhofen, we visited a pretty cool dairy and just a few more peaks within the Alps *yawn! ;). We watched the first game of the World Cup in the English Garden in Munich, after a day full of BMW museum. (Don't worry Dad, I have a TON of photos and videos for you!). I never drank this much beer in my life. Even got heckled for only a liter of beer. 

In Vienna, we soaked up as much of the Leopold Museum as we could muster. The museum has the largest collection of Schiele's works, some Klimt and a good helping of early Secession art. *drool. Today we biked around the city and survived unscathed, un-honked at and relatively financially intact. Gorgeous city, one we would both enjoy living in. Austria remains our favorite country. Plans for the rest of the day include food from a market and some serious laziness in our quiet, Soviet-era apartment complex. We have to go stock up on fussball-watching goodies! Our google account is maxed out with photos and we've purchased 20 additional Gigs so look for more photos tomorrow night! 

Best things in life are free

As you'll see in the latest photos, we headed up to SeefelderJoch yesterday- first by tram then by cable car to the top. At the peak, we tried desperately not to fall off the face of the mountain. There was one point where this was actually a bit of a challenge! We enjoyed the view, the snow and the free rides up the mountain!

In other news, the music in the camp bathroom here is all the best of 80's soft rock! Loving it.

Bitte Shuze!

We are loving Austria. Yesterday Chris and I joked about splicing a video together that showed five seconds on a cable car with Austrians then five seconds on the metro in Paris. It would be a wonderful way to show how incredibly warm, carefree and genuine people are here in Austria.

The other day we took note of interesting fish in a stream by Olympia Sportszentrium... We later fed squirrels, walked around Lake Wildsee and got engaged. After this full day, we enjoyed dinner at Camp Alpin, like always. As we looked at the menu, the head managess of the Camp told the other lady working there how to say, "we have fresh fish" in English, a message she delivered perfectly. After eating about 68,294 pounds of ham on this trip, we jumped at it.

To our surprise, out came two foot-long fish from head to tail- the same fish we had seen in the stream earlier in the day. They were perfect. The head lady then let us know that not only were they fresh, they were caught in the stream on the camp property. It doesn't get much better than that. The perfect close to a perfect day.

In Seefeld...

So after the squirrels were ALL OVER Chris, as you'll see in the gazillion photos I took between freaking out, we found the perfect engagement ring at a family-run jewelry store here in Seefeld, Austria. We're not big on hype or formalities but when we saw the right ring, it was a simple decision. Now we've uploaded all the photos, one of the ring of course, and we're going to go enjoy dinner! Only 19 more days to go before we're home sweet home. I'll try not to blind you all with my mad bling at the airport ;)

Prego, Mr. Ed

So, one of us just ate horse, and horse tartar at that. But wait, I get ahead of myself. We arrived in fair Verona via first class trains that were woefully short. From the station, we headed the wrong way up some heavily trafficked streets and crossed nearly a thousand crosswalks amongst the traffic circles. Narrowly escaping, we reoriented and found our way to B&B Divina. Perfectly content, we lazed about while the heat of the afternoon passed.

Thoroughly rested, we walked around the core of the old Roman settlement, trying to take sensible pictures when really, all we wanted to do was take a thousand pictures of everything. It's one of the most beautiful, genuine and romantic cities we have visited. For all of you who have asked, Verona, Verona, Verona is the one we would recommend you visit. Just touristy enough to find services but not spurred to the frenzy of a tourist's pace or budget. Perfecto.

After a leisurely walk, some drooling over window displays and two jaunts into 13th Century Catholic churches, we had stayed away from our dinner recommendation as long as we could stand. With a two course offering for 15 euro, why not get two courses? Well, any normal human would be perfectly satisfied with the first course of hearty, fresh pasta- that's why! But we haven't learned that lesson just yet. So after some perfect pasta, it was time for the second courses. And that's when the horse tartar arrived.

It was as if someone had been making hamburger patties to grill and forgotten one on Chris' plate. Mmm. Brave soul dug in best he could, savoring the capers it came with and the potatoes. In this case, the pasta dish saved Chris from having to eat the entire mound of horse meat. He said it tasted pretty much like any other meat. Instead of having a sauce, like many beef tartars of yester-dinner, this horse tartar had little to no seasoning. I couldn't really sympathize with him as I devoured the most delectable veal and mushroom combination ever to share a plate.

All in all, the peach/mango and coconut gelato on the walk back filled any room left in our stomachs and we will be sure to think twice before ordering two courses again, especially if one is horse.