Europa!

As promised, here's the scoop from our European adventure! We visited seven countries in about 6 weeks. It was really phenomenal! While we hit many hot spots, we were trying, in part, to see as much as we could in order to decide which ones were worthy of a longer, more in-depth vacation. Hands down, our favorite place was Scotland. I'll start at the beginning.

We took a military flight from Andrews AFB (DC) to Ramstein AFB (Kaiserslautern, Germany, about an hour from Heidelberg). Because we were taking a military flight, we couldn't be sure which one we'd get on or when we'd arrive in Europe, so we couldn't do the advance planning that the OCD side of me finds comfort in. Thus, once we were in Germany, we planned the next two weeks of our summer. Looking at all the options, there was a reasonable flight into Glasgow. It went a little something like this:

"Hey, you wanna go to Scotland?"
"Oooh that sounds cool!"
"There's a flight tomorrow night into Glasgow."
"Yeah, let's do that!"

We were both pretty excited about it! I have ancestral roots there (and, in fact, was excited to see my maiden name on signs in several places!) and we thought it would be nice and off the beaten path a bit. We landed at the Glasgow airport and called the hotel for our shuttle bus. "I'll send the driver now. Be waiting at stop 2A," the receptionist said. We walked all over the Glasgow airport and nearby bus stops. We asked every janitor, sales clerk, policeman, and possible information authority we could find. No one could give us the right info. Finally, one genius said, "What's the address of your hotel?" Um... wait a second. How many Glasgow airports are there? Ding ding ding! We're at the wrong airport! How does that happen! Hilarious! No really-- who flies into the wrong airport! So we had to get on a train that would bring us to a station on the other side of town where we could catch a cab to our hotel. On the train, which was about a half hour ride, we met the absolute nicest couple. They told us where we would get off of the train, gave us recommendations on what to see while visiting, and apologized for not having more space in their car to bring us to our hotel (and seemed quite genuine about it). Bonus: everyone here talks like Shrek!

We spent our days in this part of the UK visiting the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art (GoMA), taking a city bus tour, walking along the River Clyde. We even watched tennis star Andy Roddick beat Andy Murray (a Scotsman) with both Canadians and locals, which was when all Scots lost all manners and kindness we had seen. We took a train to Edinburgh and visited a scotch distillery, St Giles' Cathedral (where an adorable old man was doing his weekly volunteer work and gave us a piece of his endless knowledge about the history of this amazing place), and Edinburgh Castle. We had outstanding service at our hotel, unending kindness at restaurants, and incredible niceties from locals at every stop. We often discussed the validity behind many folks from Scotland having settled in the southern part of the US versus many folks from England having settled in the northern part of the US and the truth to some stereotypes.

The Squinty Bridge (Left)
A bagpiper (Right)

From Glasgow, we took a train on down to London. Other highlights from our adventure include:

London
Seeing our dear friend Kurt who was finishing up a summer clerkship there. Don't think we would have seen him had he not been finished with work. It's a hard working city!
I was surprised at how taken aback I was by Westminster Abbey.

Along the walkway to Buckingham Palace (Top)
Parliament and Big Ben (Lower left)
Along the Thames with Big Ben in the back (Lower right)














Spain
The running of the bulls (Fiesta de San Fermin). Awesome! We lost so much sleep doing it, but would certainly do it again. A 400-year old tradition still going strong.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (the beginning of my love affair with Jeff Koons' work!)

Jeff Koons' "Tulips" (TL)
Comin through! San Fermin Festival! (TR)
Italy
Gelato, of course!
The adorable streets of the ever-unique Venice

Rome was packed with tourists, so it
was easy to find an American to take
our photo in front of the Colosseum! (TL)
The Last Supper (TR)
Ahhh Venezia! (LR)


Czech Republic
Getting the tour from high school friend of mine
We spent a lot of our time here getting work done for school before we were to see friends

A jazz band on the Charles Bridge (L)
Inside the main square (R)



Switzerland
Catching up with a friend from my husband's exchange student days in Germany
While we didn't partake, I found it interesting to learn that Switzerland's laws on marijuana are more lax than even Amsterdam. The smell of it in public was quite strong! We also saw a couple sitting on a courtyard bench, mid-weekday afternoon, just feet from children, doing coke. That was a first!

The guys being silly (L)
Castle in Baden (R)


Germany
Getting the historical tour of Frankfurt through the eyes of the church
Visiting their first wine fest of the year (and our first ever) with Matt and Ellen

The Wegners in Frankfurt during our church tour (L)
Loved this statue in Darmstadt gardens! (R)
Us with our favorite residents of Daubenbornerhof! (Bottom)
















And so it went! We are now back to the US and reality. As much reality as a pair of grad students can have, anyway... It was a wonderful trip. People ask me if I like DC so far and I tell them that I do, but after this summer, I feel as if it's just another new city we're visiting, but everyone here speaks English!