Category Archives: European Escapades

On Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and took a flight to Stuttgart, Germany where John’s Uncle Russell, Aunt Linda and cousins live.  They live on the Army base there–Uncle Russell is a Marine and is currently posted in Germany.  It was so nice to have family so close to visit!

Aunt Linda and me at the Palace

Aunt Linda and Olivia picked us up from the airport–we were ready to go go go!  We dropped our bags at their home, then took the train with the rest of the family to Ludwigsburg Palace where we saw over 70 rooms including 3 throne rooms, two beautiful chapels, and tons of baroque and classical architecture and decorating schemes.  Our tour was mostly in German, but that just added to the authenticity of the experience.  Obviously, the palace was massive–it was so cool!

Vineyards and Villages

We then wandered around the palace grounds, saw Rapunzel’s Tower (where during summer months, you can call to her and she’ll let down her hair), and downtown Stuttgart.  Stuttgart is a very new and progressive city.  Many of the buildings were destroyed during the second world war, but were rebuilt to maintain their historic character.  Others are very modern.  After having some noodles and ice cream, we headed back to the Sanborn’s where we chatted into the wee hours of the morning.

One excited guy.

The next day, we went to church at the International Baptist Church of Stuttgart.  Amazingly, the minister there was formerly the minister of International Baptist Church of Singapore, where John and I attended while living in Asia.  He left the church before we got there, but we knew many of the same people.  Very cool.  🙂

After church, we were off to the Wurttemberg Mausoleum, a beautiful mountaintop burial place that a husband built for his wife.  It offered stunning views of the vineyards that surround Stuttgart and of the city itself.  Then, we headed to the Mercedes Benz Museum where we spent most of our afternoon.  John is a real car enthusiast and, actually, the museum had lots of interesting exhibits for the girls as well.  It followed Mercedes Benz’s development and how the company reacted to social, political, and cultural events.  Of course it was full of cars which made John very happy.

Kaitlin and Aunt Linda exploring the museum

After exploring the museum, we enjoyed a wonderful German dinner in a house turned restaurant.  I had a delicious salad (regular salad and potato salad together), snitzel (fried pork), and spaetzle (a German version of mac and cheese).  Honestly, this was one of the best meals we’ve had in Europe.  The flavors were spectacular and the meal was very filling.

After a DELICIOUS Dinner

We even got to try some German beer and a Riesling wine from Germany.  It was an excellent survey of delicious German cuisine.  With our bellies nice and full, we were off to bed to rest for our Autobahn Adventure!

Early Monday morning, Aunt Linda and I set out with John to enjoy his Christmas present:  renting a nice car and driving on the Autobahn.  We ended up with an Audi A4 (just like Audrey, Rev!) and off we went towards Munich.  Contrary to popular belief (at least, what I believed) the Autobahn isn’t a complete free-for-all speed wise.  There are places of unlimited speed, but most of the highway is regulated.  Needless to say, John found these areas and took off.  He was very safe though.  😉  The picture is in kilometres per hour–not miles per hour.  Don’t worry Mom!

Autobahn Driving

While driving around, we visited the Andechs Monastery where we saw a beautiful church and tried the beer the monks make on site!  I’m not a beer drinker and actually it was pretty decent.  Complete with beautiful views of Bavaria, the monastery was a hit!  We got back in the car, drove a few kilometers to a pretty lake that was frozen over, had some tea and cake and then sped back to the airport to try to make our flight.  (We arrived only half an hour before scheduled take off time…but we made it!!!)

Monastery Beer--very nice!

A big thank you to the Sanborns for making our time in Germany so amazing!  Uncle Russell, Aunt Linda, Kaitlin, Emily, Olivia, and Rachel–we really appreciate it!!!  And–we missed you Jake.  🙂

Thanks for reading, everyone!!

Since Valentine’s Day fell on a Tuesday this year, we decided to have a little adventure the weekend before.  We found inexpensive tickets to Thessaloniki, Greece and the Friday before Valentine’s Day (after a very sweet delivery of roses to our flat) off we went!

Leaving snowy England

We landed on Thessaloniki and took a taxi into the city.  From a distance it looked like what I expected of Greece, buildings on a gently sloping hillside around a bay.  But up close, was a different story.  Many of the buildings resembled communist blocks and there was graffiti everywhere, making it look more like Hanoi, Vietnam than my expectations of a Grecian paradise.  (Too much Mama Mia, I guess).  I have heard that the islands are very different…and I would still like to check those out!

Eating our way through Thessaloniki

Our first night, we had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant on the main pier and then headed to bed.  The next day we explored the city, went to a coffee shop, the first place I’ve ever been where they didn’t have an English menu.  Fortunately “espresso” translates.”  Then we had a lovely evening hopping from bar to bar and ended up at Malt and Jazz, a music venue where they were playing Greek top 40 hits.  It was awesome!

The next day was our “touristy” day.  We saw a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church, paid a visit to the Turkish Embassy which was Ataturk’s birthplace and childhood home, saw some Roman ruins, explored the White Tower, and ended with a delicious Greek meal.

In front of the Roman Agora

We had some moussaka and some delicious feta cheese.  The people in Greece were so friendly–they gave us free dessert a couple of places we went!  After lunch, we went back to our hotel for a nap.  When we got up and went out, our real adventure began…

If you have been following the news lately, you’ll know that Greece has been facing some austerity measures that are quite controversial locally.  We happened to be there over the weekend of the vote when things got crazy.  Fortunately, most of the craziness was in Athens.  The images people saw on the news of burning buildings and tear gas were of Athens, not where we were.  Let me preface this part of the story by saying:  WE WERE PERFECTLY SAFE!!!

Riot Police taking care of business

Although the majority of the protesting was in Athens, Thessaloniki did have a demonstration involving more than 20,000 people.  As we were heading to dinner, we happened upon the march, so we decided to observe.  For the most part, everyone was peaceful.  As the march continued though, we could hear people beating windows and signs with sticks and their fists.  We were situated on a corner where the march was turning.  There was a suit shop on the corner that suffered several broken windows and a bank that suffered a broken sign and a few broken windows.

Graffiti on the suit shop...

As the march proceeded to a small square, things got a little ugly.  People began shooting fireworks into buildings, setting dumpsters on fire, and throwing things are the riot police.  By this point, we were a couple of blocks from the demonstration, but we could see it as it was slightly uphill.  There were about 15 riot police officers between us and what was going on.  We were amongst several observers, mostly Greek, all watching this chaos with a look of dismay and some of disgust.  Eventually, as things escalated, the police shot tear gas into the crowd to get things to calm down.  As you can imagine, this agitated the protesters and they continued to throw things at the police.

Our view from behind the police

Eventually, however, things died down.  John and I decided to take a walk down a side street, where many other people were walking to get home, and were overwhelmed by tear gas.  It had blown over from the protest site.  Let me tell you, I can see why this is used as a crowd control tool.  Our eyes teared up, throats and noses started burning.  It was awful–and that was a diluted version.  Looking back, we laugh at our “tear gas Valentine’s Day.”

Delicious food!

After this episode, we hightailed it to a restaurant in an old olive oil warehouse and had a delicious dinner of feta cheese, salad, chicken skewers, and some delicious Greek dessert.  The waiter was apologizing profusely for the protests and told us not to be afraid, Greece wasn’t mad at us.  Haha.  He also asked us what we liked about Greece to which we replied: the food and the friendly people.  He then mocked us saying “haha–so friendly” and acted out the throwing of a grenade.  Such a hilarious guy.  After dinner, we went back to the hotel where we watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”  That just seemed like the right thing to do.

Really excited about that Greek coffee...

The next morning, we went out for some Greek coffee, lunch, and eventually made our way back to the airport for our flight home to London.  And thus ends our adventure to Thessaloniki filled with wonderful food, friendly people, and history in the making!

Thanks for reading!  Hope everyone has a wonderful week!  Cheers!