Glitzers in Germany

Attention blog fans: The video below is merely to tide you over until guest blogger, Mr. Andrew Glitzer, posts his recap of the zany and debaucherous Glitzer Germany tour 2007.

Venice: The sinking city on the rise

OK, I’m no mathematician. But I’m sure there’s some mathematical equation that shows the proportionality between tourist population and hotel prices. Knowing that, I wanted to show my baby that I cared enough about her to splurge on a nice place in Venice – one of the most romantic cities in the world. I wanted a hotel actually located on the sandbar that is downtown Venice. One within walking distance of the main square, Piazza San Marco. One with charm.
So, I went to hostelworld.com, found a cheap place about an hours’ walk from San Marco, didn’t even bother to look at the pictures, and booked it. I guess it’s true what they say about actions speaking louder than words. It’s just too bad that our actions were to walk for a freaking hour from our dumpity-dump-dump room through the massive hordes of tourists to get to the center of the once proud Republic that is now riddled with litter and graffiti.

Actually, grumbling aside, Venice was beautiful. And the one-hour walk was actually pretty darn romantic. You see, much like the Italian way of life, nothing in Venice is orderly. There are no straight roads, no accurate or consistent signage, no way of telling how much a sandwich actually costs. But that’s OK. It adds to the charm and the “Italian-ness” of it all.
So we made the zig-zagging, hour walk twice – once the night of our arrival and once the next morning. Both times, parts of the walk were congested with shops, tourists, and barkers while other parts were desolate and we quietly ambled across the numerous bewitching bridges watching the graceful gondolas as they glided past us.
Here's Kate shopping.

Here’s the famous Rialto Bridge.
The goal of our walk was Piazza San Marco (St. Marks’ Square in English), home to St. Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Clock tower, and, of course, FLOCKS AND FLOCKS OF PIGEONS. (Here's a man offering Kate birdseed).


Far more interesting to Kate and I than silly basilicas, places, and clock towers were these winged beasties. Although it took a little convincing, Kate actually temporarily overcame her aversion to these critters and let one land on her hand. You can almost see the revulsion.
She had to shake the post-bird jitters out for about five minutes following this photo, her phobic mind trying to shake off any residual vestige of grossness these birds left behind.

After Venice we trained two hours east to Verona, historic home to Shakespeare’s Star-Crossed Lovers as well as a coliseum that is just as old and almost as big as the one in Rome.
We arrived in the afternoon, and upon entering the main square were so smitten with the surrounds that I took several shots of Kate in a 360, showing the beauty (the sights, not Kate) in every direction. Here they are in all their glory.
Afterward, we got a close up of the sites. Here’s Juliet’s balcony (where, apparently, the Capulets really lived).
And here's a shot Kate couldn’t resist taking from an old bridge leading to the castle.
On our way back down, we enjoyed a nice view and an after-dinner gelato while walking across an incredibly romantic old stone bridge. Beautiful.
To tell you the truth, we liked Verona better than Venice. It was less touristy, had more to see, and had more of a natural charm to it. The allure of Venice, I think, is that the only motorized vehicles are boats. Once you get over that, it loses its pizzazz.

Then, following these two cities, we headed to Vicenza – located smack dab in the center of Verona and Venice – where I worked for two days. Nothing special in this third “V” city other than the location. But we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. And on Tuesday afternoon, we bid arrivederci to Italy. "Ciao, Italia" – our most visited country since we’ve been in Europe. We like you a lot and I’m sure we’ll be back.

Where in the world are Kate and Justin?

Hello dear readers. And welcome to another episode of “Where in the World are Justin and Kate this Week?”

Any guesses yet?
Still nothing?
Yes, for those of you who can read English, this Labor Day weekend, J&K went to Stockholm, Sweden, to discover the tall, skinny, blond/blue Viking within them. Unfortunate for Kate, her Viking spirit was Tomtar, the haggard-looking Norse Troll drunk on lingonberry schnapps.
Tomtar aside, we found Stockholm to be a peaceful city that had a perfect mix of water, city, and green. Stockholm is actually protected mini-archipelago off of the Baltic Sea, comprised of 14 islands. Because there’s been very little industry here, the water all around the islands looks pristine and, gosh darnit, if it would have been….ooh, I don’t know….30 degrees warmer, I probably would have shown those Stockholmians my skivvies and dived right in.

Fortunately for them, it was downright chilly over the weekend and so our holiday consisted of window shopping down the old pedestrian streets, taking every single walking tour in our guide book (and then some), and eating the funny foods, like these oversized crackers they call knackerbrod or this spread made from Uncle Bob’s entrails. Other neat foods included "Maryland" cookies, “salmon” paste, and all these funny “Amerikansk” burger dressings. One of the stores I was excited to go into was the Baby Björn store. For those unfamiliar with Baby Björn, it’s a baby merchandise store that caters to the same sensible people who buy Volvos …. health-and-safety conscious planners who like functional goods and are willing to pay more for quality. We’re talking strollers that moonlight as cribs, bassinettes, and car seats. We’re talking chairs that can adapt to fit a six month old, a two year old, or a 27 year old with not a lot of rumpus fat. (Sorry, no picture of that). Yes, Baby Björn had Kate’s type of products. (Here's Kate looking guiltily and perhaps ashamedly oogling these products).
One thing we didn’t understand, though, was the idea of having ghosts safeguard your babies from bad dreams. Seriously, Swedes? Ghosts? Next it’ll be skeletons. And then vampires that look like Borat but with actual blood that squirts out of their mouths. Anyway, craziness aside, we really liked Sweden. In reality, it probably could have been anywhere outside of our living room and we would have enjoyed it. But the peaceful water, the pleasingly symmetric and colorful buildings, and the quiet, crime-free old town certainly didn’t hurt.

Actually, speaking of the old town AND speaking of ghosts, I tried a couple "ghost" shots of Kate. What do you think? Here's Kate slowly disappearing.

And here's here walking away after disappearing.

OK, and again on the babies thing: There were kids everywhere we went: the park, the harbors, the pawnshops. Babies, babies, babies. I took a couple pictures of kids playing in the park, but like the below picture the best. Much like the Hubbard Telescope a couple years ago, I decided to just pick a direction I felt had the LEAST amount of baby density, zoom in, and wonder what, if anything, would come up. Well, lucky me. Here’s a close up shot of four strollers. FOUR.
This shot was taken in Skansen, an open air museum/zoo on the island Djurgården created to show the way of life in Sweden before the industrial era. We spent almost one full day, watching how life once was in the land of the midnight sun. Here’s two improvised (read: very poorly done) “news” blips of me saying the same thing…plus another video of some friendly heiffers we saw.

When we weren’t walking around the 14 islands of the city, we managed to sit down and enjoy a couple meals, including a Chinese buffet, a Pakistani joint, a coffee shop serving HUGE mugs of cocoa, and a traditional Swedish place where we got the traditional meatballs and lingonberries.
So, to recap: Babies. Tomtar. Lingonberries. Here’s some other pictures I drew blanks on.

Enough traveling already!

Pecos was at his tipping point. Normally our out-of-town trips consist of no more than a long weekend – long enough for him to revel in our return, as noticed by the increased barking, tail wagging, and affectionate ear licking I so like to call our “secret sharing” moment, but short enough for him to tolerate the raw abhorrence, nay, revulsion coming from Baci, Jay and Linda’s 6,000-year-old Yorkie.

But this past trip was too long, he thought. Eight days away followed by a teasing day back in town that only tortured him, followed by three full days away. It was too much. All too much.

Thankfully, after Kathryn and Antonio’s trip here, Kate and I were able to relax for a full week, resuming our individually indented positions on the couch and watching some good old Scrubs.

We also went to the annual Wiesbaden winefest with this chipper looking bunch, including the lofty gentleman in the middle, Mr. Josh Ireland, who, although is tall, is by no means the enormous giant he appears to be here, where he is actually standing on a step.

Kate and I had too much to drink here. So much so that Kate actually began to appreciate the shirt I was wearing. Kate and Pecos got some alone time the following week, when I went to Nashville, Tenn., for some good old fashioned barbeque. And, of course, what trip to Nashville would be complete without an hour-long guided tour in the 103-degree heat and 95% humidity of the Old Hickory Power Plant? (I love my tour guides shirt, though).But before Pecos could bark out the Armor Hotdogs theme, which he likes to do so much, I was back in town and we were resting up again, with our faithful companion Scrubs, taking a breather before our next big trip: Sweden.

Gargureviches in Germany

This is a long overdue post about my parents' time in Germany. Yes, we actually spent some time in Germany when they were here, though not very much time at all.

My parents landed from the States on the afternoon of August 1st. We immediately whisked them up the Rhein for our standard tour. The standard tour includes a stop in Rudesheim, at stop in Bacharach, and much oooing and ahhing at the castles on either side of the river. All those who have come to visit can attest to the standardness of this tour.

We decided to end the day with a non-standard dinner. We took them to Waldgeist, home of the huge schnitzels. Jay and Linda joined us for the gluttonous feast. Though we waited forever for a table, the wait was worth it. Jay, my mom, and my dad, all ordered schnitzels, Linda ordered some kind of steak, I ordered a monster salad, and Justin ordered a hamburger even he could not finish. The food was good, and excessive. It was good to have a family dinner, even though I kept thinking my mom was falling asleep. The next day, we were off to Greece.

After our time in Greece, we came back to Germany for maybe 16 hours. Just long enough to fit in some more tourism.

During those 16 hours, I managed to show my parents a bit of Wiesbaden. We first went up to Neroberg to enjoy the view of the city, and a short, forested stroll. We then went down to the city for a quick tour. Here, we found the wine-fest underway. We decided to extend our time in Wiesbaden and partake in the wine fest. Rieslings and brats were sampled by all, including Pecos who was vying for a bratwurst of his own, or least a fish sandwich.

After this tasty lunch, the four of us loaded into the car for the drive down to Stuttgart (where we were catching our flight to Dubrovnik). On the way, we stopped in Darmstadt for a bit of city tourism. This city is small and pretty, with new and old blending together nicely (we didn't take any pictures, so I can't show you what I mean).

After leaving Darmstadt, we head about 15 minutes outside of the city to Frankenstein castle. Yes, THE Frankenstein castle. There is a legend surrounding this castle that a past resident tried to assemble a new person out of parts of dead people (fun stuff, eh?). Mary Shelley heard this legend and visited the castle before writing her story. It is said to be the inspiration for her Frankenstein. For us, the castle just inspired us to take a bunch of goofy pictures.

*Note to future visitors: Frankenstein castle will be included in the standard-tour package.*

After getting out fill, we loaded back into the Ka for the drive down to Stuttgart. The next morning, we were off to Dubrovnik.

All in all, my parents visit was jam-packed but wonderful. We really saw a lot in a short period of time. It was great to have both of them here and to be able to show my dad where I live. Hopefully, we'll plan another trip for next summer, but perhaps with more down-time.