We picked our friends John and Joanna up at the hauptbahnoff (train station) in Wiesbaden on 17 July. They flew into Paris earlier that day and started off their 3-week European holiday by visiting our area. Together with Danielle and Jonathan, we had a great weekend showing them around the area--Heidelberg, Rüdesheim, the Mainz beer festival, and of course Wiesbaden. Danielle dropped dropped them off at the hauptbahnoff on Monday morning and during the week they toured Munich and Switzerland.
We drove down to Prague to meet up with them for the weekend of 25-27 July.
It was a rough drive to Prague...what should have been about a 5 hour trip turned into about a 7 hour drive because of construction and traffic. Seriously, we think the entire country of the Netherlands decided to go camping for the weekend! John and Joanna were nice enough to wait for us for dinner and we ended up eating traditional Czech dinners in the Old Town Square. Unfortunately, we got ripped off at the restaurant--they charged us EACH $5 for bread (little tiny pieces of bread) and rounded up the bill. We ended up finding a cute little pub with cheap beer to get our minds off of it. Kurt was also able to take some great night shots on our walk back to the hotel.
On Saturday, we climbed the Petřínská rozhledna (Petřín lookout tower), which is sort of like the Eiffel tower on a smaller scale. The views were much different from the view we had in February! Afterward, we had lunch, shopped for souvenirs, and headed back to our rooms to relax and change since it was a ridiculously hot day. At dinner, we decided to go on a pub crawl. Our only stipulation was that the beers couldn't be more than 35 koruna (about $2). We meandered our way through the city hitting quite a few pubs along the way before having one last drink at the hotel pub.
On Sunday, we dropped John and Joanna off at the airport and they were off to Italy. We found out later that they got engaged in Cinque Terra! We were wondering if that would happen at some point on the trip and were so excited to hear the news! Congratulations John and Joanna! We're looking forward to your wedding next year!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Naples, Florida
Carrie went to Naples, Florida from 14 June to 12 July for a conference. It was a really amazing opportunity to meet a lot of people from many backgrounds. We had a fair amount of long work days, but were able to find time to have fun as well! The hotel was right on the beach, so after work we were able to play beach volleyball a few times or just go for a quick swim. I tried running in the mornings a few times, but the humidity was killer!
Some of the fun things I got to do were:
- Shopping at several malls and shopping outlets. I definitely miss American shopping!
- Kayaking. Kayaking was a lot of fun but a very difficult workout...especially for someone without any upper body strength!
- Visiting the Naples Zoo. It was ridiculously hot and not very impressive. However, their primate exhibit was a group of islands without fences--apparently natural borders of water are enough!
- Sheriff's department ride along. It was neat to see what they do and their perspective of the community.
- Airboat ride on the Everglades. The landscape of the Everglades was completely unique and amazing. As the boat maneuvered through mangrove stands and over sawgrass, we saw alligators up close and birds peacefully flying overhead. I opted out of holding a baby alligator at the end of the tour. Our tour guide, a former gator wrassler, said that Florida is home to more species of orchids than any where outside of Asia and pointed out a few to us.
- Boating on the Gulf of Mexico for a morning. Several of us rented a boat for a morning and went out to the Gulf of Mexico. While several people fished, the rest of us had a good time swimming. We even found a shore covered in seashells and had fun finding really pretty ones.
Some of the fun things I got to do were:
- Shopping at several malls and shopping outlets. I definitely miss American shopping!
- Kayaking. Kayaking was a lot of fun but a very difficult workout...especially for someone without any upper body strength!
- Visiting the Naples Zoo. It was ridiculously hot and not very impressive. However, their primate exhibit was a group of islands without fences--apparently natural borders of water are enough!
- Sheriff's department ride along. It was neat to see what they do and their perspective of the community.
- Airboat ride on the Everglades. The landscape of the Everglades was completely unique and amazing. As the boat maneuvered through mangrove stands and over sawgrass, we saw alligators up close and birds peacefully flying overhead. I opted out of holding a baby alligator at the end of the tour. Our tour guide, a former gator wrassler, said that Florida is home to more species of orchids than any where outside of Asia and pointed out a few to us.
- Boating on the Gulf of Mexico for a morning. Several of us rented a boat for a morning and went out to the Gulf of Mexico. While several people fished, the rest of us had a good time swimming. We even found a shore covered in seashells and had fun finding really pretty ones.
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