CarrieandJonathan

Parmesan has been ruined forever.

That is, American Parmesan has been ruined for me forever. That is because Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy is something entirely different than American Parmesan cheese. I mean, the cheese we get from Sam's Club is pretty good, but it's definitely an imitation of the stuff we've eaten here in the northern part of Italy.

And if you're eating the pre-shredded stuff (or even better, the stuff that comes in the preprocessed can that is marketed as "finely grated Parmesean cheese"), and you don't want it to be spoiled for you, then I recommend staying as far away from this region of the world as you possibly can.

Really, the Parmigiano Reggiano alone is worth traveling here for.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We wrote our experiences of Verona separately (for no particular reason)... so today, you get to experience Verona through both of our eyes in one short post!

Verona: Jonathan's experience

To be honest, before going, I wasn't that excited about going to Verona. I knew it was a fabled city because of the story of Romeo and Juliet, but didn't know that Shakespeare's story actually came from such a cool city. There are a number of things to see and do in Verona, but let's get to the topic everyone would want to know about...

Did we see where Romeo met, courted, and eventually died with Juliet?

Well...

Here's the balcony of Juliet

The balcony of Juliet as it stands today is actually believed to be three sides of an ancient sarcophagus (read - built for a dead person), and the house of Juliet was actually the house of the family Capulletto (or something like that), so it's unclear if Shakespeare was inspired to write his story because there was actually a "Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet" or, if he created Romeo and Juliet after hearing about or seeing the house of Capulletto. Anyway, maybe I'm too practical in wanting the story to be true before buying into the whole story and getting really excited about seeing the lives and times of the lovers, but in my estimation, it was a bit of an overrated attraction. It was fun to go and see nonetheless.

We didn't see the tomb of Juliet (again, due to the fact that we don't know if the story is true, and so there are more interesting things to see).

So what was so cool about Verona? Nothing in particular, AND everything about it really... It's actually a city where people live, and have lives that aren't solely based around tourists coming to the city (which was how we felt in Venice - which is still a nice city though), and has some really great attractions... including the arena (www.arena.it), which is like a smaller version of the Coliseum, but what's really cool is that in summertime, it's still actively used for plays and shows.

How cool would it be to sit in an arena that was used in Roman times and actually see a show today, over 1,500 years later? (Personally, I think it would be cool to see a lion battling a person, like they used to do in Roman times, but maybe I only think that would be cool, and then once I saw it, I would think otherwise: probably a bit violent and gory to watch a lion mauling a person or vice-versa).

Verona is a city which has a beautiful compilation of churches and beautiful sights. There are three major castles, some very nice bridges, and neat little café's and pizza places.

One of these places is called Redemptore pizza.

It's called redemptore pizza because it's built inside of an old church. Redemptore = redemption in English - Redemption Pizza.

While we didn't actually eat at Redemption pizza, I thought that it would be funny if on the other side of town, there was a sinful pizza, so I asked Mara what the Italian word for sinful was.

Italian vocabulary: Picaminosa = (sinful)

The word is pronounced Pick - A - Me - Nosa

Carrie said, maybe that's why it's bad to pick your nose.

Because it's sinful.

Anyway, you probably would have had to have been there, but it was very funny at the time.

Verona was truly an awesome city. One which comes VERY highly recommended.

Verona: Carrie's experience

When Mara said that she wanted to take us to Verona, I wasn't excited. I mean, I thought it would be cool to go, especially if a native recommends it (and it's where Romeo and Juliet takes place), but I didn't really know much about Verona. So I wasn't excited, because I didn't know anything.

When we got there (Verona is about an hour drive from where we were staying), our first stop was the arena. We've all heard of the Coliseum in Rome, and the Arena in Verona is similar. It was built around the same time, for the same purposes. It's a bit smaller, and the marble it was made of wasn't stolen (to build St. Peter's Basilica). The biggest difference between the Coliseum and the Arena is that they still use the Arena today.

During the summer it is home to the Verona Opera. How amazing would it be to sit here listening to an opera? FYI - these pictures do not capture the size of the steps. Each step is at least twice the height of our steps today, maybe more. So, climbing to the top isn't fun on those thigh muscles, but the view is worth it.

From here we went to see the fabled balcony of Juliet. Apparently people say that there was a family living here around Shakespeare's time by the name of Capuleti, and this is where Shakespeare found his story. It was pretty fun getting to see Juliet's balcony (which apparently used to be a sarcophagus), and seeing the statue of Juliet was nice too,

But seeing the myriad of love-note graffiti sprayed everywhere wasn't quite as fun.

From here we went and had a lovely cup of cappuccino at an outdoor café. Then we were off to visit the cathedral. On our way we found this statue of Dante (author of The Inferno, and the man credited with unifying the Italian language). Jonathan is (apparently) a big fan of Dante and likes to pretend that he is Dante sometimes.
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The Cathedral in Verona was interesting. It was beautiful of course, but the interesting part was that there had been a church on that site for thousands of years. And there are parts of the old church that are still visible (you go through a hallway, down some stairs, around the corner, and then into another building, and you see (through the glass floor) the foundation and pillars of the first church built on the site, but all the while you're walking through all the ruins of the several other churches that were built on top in order to expand the church).

From here Mara took us across the river so we could climb the hill to the castle.

When we got to the top of the hill, we had the most amazing view of the city. We spent a lot of time up here admiring the view and had a lot of fun just hanging out.

But Jonathan and Mara did get a little frisky.

(Just kidding)

Then we walked back down and decided to grab a snack. Our snack turned out to be the best eggplant parmesan I've ever eaten in my entire life.

Next we were off to another castle in Verona. Along the way, we enjoyed a beautiful walk along the river. The castle was gorgeous!

(Yes, Jonathan took that picture. Doesn't it look like it could be a post card?)

This castle was our last stop in Verona. Next we drove back and went to a graduation party for one of Mara's friends.

While I went to Verona not very excited, I came away with a much different feeling. Verona was my favorite place we went, and my favorite day of the trip. It was a city where people actually lived, worked, and led their lives. The city did not thrive on tourism (of course there is some, but it wasn't overrun). Verona was a natural city. While we were driving back, and singing a silly song, the three of us were talking about where we could meet in the middle when Jonathan and I live in Verona. It is a beautiful city; the people are nice; it felt like home.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Venice... ah Venice... the city of love, canals, and funny smells.

Venice was nice.

It is definitely a place everyone should see.

We're glad we went, and we enjoyed the time there. But to be honest, it felt a bit hyped and overrated at times.

We're here during a relatively low time of the year for tourism. However, the city is still overrun with people taking pictures of things.

One of the things they're taking pictures of is all the pigeons.

What are the pigeons doing?

Eating the crumbs of items which were dropped by tourists, who are eating stuff (and throwing stuff to the birds) which was made for tourists.

But we did have a great Venice guide in our friend Mara (who has been to Venice more than once before).

Admittedly, there are many things here in Venice we didn't see. There are some great museums we didn't see, and there are probably things we didn't cover at all, being in Venice for just a day.

And don't get us wrong, because the city is extremely pretty for walking around, and amazing that such a powerful civilization was founded in such an unlikely place (on water).

It's important to know though that the city (of today) is based around tourism, so if you like a touristy experience, then great. You're likely not to notice that they city is set up to give you a specific tourist experience.

But if you're going to Italy to experience Italy and current Italian culture (outside of tourism), Venice may not be somewhere you want to visit for very long.

It's definitely on the list for cities you want to visit, but for us, one day was good.

That's not to say that this city isn't photogenic either, because it really is.

Here are some of our favorite pictures we took in Venice:

Carrie and Mara didn't come with me, but I walked through the fish market. I had fun!

Saint Mark's Square (from the roof of Saint Mark's Cathedral.) When you go to Venice, definitely pay the fee to go to the roof of St. Mark's. It's totally worth it.

Looking at St. Mark's from across the square... (this is where the pigeons weren't as aggressive or as numerous - I could only get Carrie to come with me through the pigeon-infested square for purposes of this picture.)

Gondolas lined up with the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore (Saint George) in the background

The Grand Canal

This is a tower that is part of a Greek Orthodox church. It's REALLY leaning, though it doesn't appear to be too off in this picture.

Carrie and our excellent tour guide/driver/hostess/comedienne Mara in a Venetian city park.

Clotheslines in Venice

The Sunset over the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore

And a quick compilation video from the day

Posted by Jonathan at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Because of the strike happening with the German train system, we were unable to take the train from Bad Zwischenahn into Bremen to catch our flight this morning. Sabine was nice enough to drive us to the Bremen airport, which was about an hour away. Thanks Sabine!

We flew from Bremen into Bergamo (marketed as Milan by Ryan Air) where Mara was kind enough to pick us up. It was my first time meeting her, and she and Jonathan hadn't seen each other for six years (since they studied together in Oldenburg).

After picking us up from the airport, Mara took us across the street to one of the largest malls in Italy. The outside walls of the mall were decorated with 3-D red alligators, and thousands upon thousands of plastic animals were waiting inside for us.

There were dolphins hanging from the ceiling.

And we saw this grouping of animals and thought it was quite funny. You could play the game "Which two of these aren't like the other three?" Jonathan and I found it funny anyway. (He categorized by animal, while I categorized by color.)

While we were there, Mara thought we should all have some gelati (gelato is singular, and since we each had two scoops, it's gelati). Yummy Yummy Yummy.

From here we went back to Mara's house where she cooked us a fantastic dinner of fresh gnocchi pasta and a tomato salad. We spent the rest of the evening drinking fine Italian wine and getting to know each other.

Posted by Carrie at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On the 24th, we went into the town of Bad Zwischenahn, which is kind of a quiet little village in the wintertime and a well-visited lake/resort town in the summertime. (For those of you living in Colorado, who have been to Estes Park in both summer and wintertime, you know what we are talking about.)
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While Bad Zwischenahn is a nice town, we felt we saw the majority of it in under 30 minutes, so we took the train through Oldenburg (since we had been there the day previous), and went into the fabled town of Bremen.

If you haven't read the story of the Bremen Town Musicians (by the Brothers Grimm), you should. It's not the highlight of the Brothers' Grimm's tales, but is a fun and short read.

Here we are with the statue of the Bremen Town Musicians.

We also took a big walking tour (on our own) of Bremen.

Our intention had been to tour the Beck's brewery (which is in Bremen), but the brewery is only open for tours on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Because of the train strike on Thursday, we had decided to take the train to Bremen on Wednesday, so the brewery tour was unavailable to us. Should you decide to go to Bremen to do a brewery tour, just remember that the brewery tour is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

In any case, on our walking tour, we went into the schnoorviertel, which is an old part of the city of Bremen that wasn't totally annihilated (unlike most of the city) during World War Two. The reason it's called schnoor is because of an old German word "schnur" which means close together, and everything about this little city within the city of Bremen resembles close together (and small).

(Like this doorway.)

We also found an old "Hochzeitshaus", which (in the 1600's) is the house which would hold up to six people who had come into the big city from the farms to get married.

Why would it hold up to six people?

Well, the newly wedded couple would spend their wedding night together in the Hochzeitshaus, and there was also room for both parents of the couple in an adjoining room.

We love our parents, but we're glad we live in the year 2007.
(Thanks for the hotel room after the wedding Mom and Dad!)

Bremen was also having a big street festival and so you could get all kinds of traditional German food.

Including Kartoffelpuffer (Potato puffs)

And Gluehwein

Gluehwein is something like wine mixed with mulled spices.

This wine was OH SO good, on such a cool day, that we had to go back and get a second glass.

And yes, warm wine does affect the body's senses more quickly than cold wine, and it also warms the body up much more quickly. There's nothing better than this on a cold day... except perhaps the small sample glass we had of warmed honey wine. That was really great too.

On our way back from Bremen, we got off the train in Oldenburg, where Joern and Sabine picked us up. We went out for some food and drinks at a restaurant on Wallstrasse (I spent a fair amount of time on Wallstrasse during my Oldenburg studies in 2001).

It was a really great day!

The following day (October 25th), we made the (short - well, supposed to be short) drive to Twistringen, where my ancestors are buried. My Oma (Grandma) has pictures of her playing in her Oma's (My Great-Great Grandma) backyard as a little girl.

None of that is there anymore, but the cemetery still is.

It was really neat to return here with my wife, (wife is still a bit funny to say - growing into it at the moment...) and show her a place that has come to be special for me since I first visited here in 2001 (see the pictures here). It's just a quiet place in the middle of a small wooded area. At some point we will have to correct one of the grave sites, which has a rock next to it identifying it as three Russian prisoners of war... but it's clear that there are only two graves here, and one open burial plot. Last time I was here, the rock was simply sitting on the ground in front of the graves, but between then and now, someone cemented it in, in the place where there used to be a headstone (likely broken off during the destruction that may have happened in the cemetery during the second world war. I am under the impression that this is where the great grandparents of my Oma are buried (my great-great-great grandparents), but I'll have to check with Oma and her brother (Uncle Walter) to know for sure.

Sabine was nice enough to allow us to use her car, which was awesome, and Carrie and I had a great afternoon driving through the German countryside on a gray afternoon, which suited the mood of the day very nicely. On the way back, we saw all sorts of colors on the changing fall leaves ranging from bright reds to yellows and some remaining green leaves, and of course fields and fields of green grass and moss.

It is fascinating to us that Carrie's Mom's family came from Bad Zwischenahn, and less than an hour away, in Twistringen, is where my Oma's side of the family comes from. We rolled around the idea that thousands of years ago (maybe as recent as a couple thousand years ago), our ancestors were part of neighboring Germanic tribes, or may even have been part of the same nomadic tribe. Our spirits may have even been embodied there. It's amazing for us in light of the fact that we met each other via German club at UNC in Northern Colorado. Sort of like we were destined to be together... And also that our choices brought our destinies together.

It was a great discussion to have on our honeymoon, and gave us a great perspective on where we're from, as well as where we're going together.

Posted by Jonathan at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today, Carrie and I left from our wonderful time in Hammoor with Anne Link.

We traveled by train from Hamburg to Bad Zwischenahn, where Carrie's family picked us up.

Many people are surprised when we tell them that Carrie still has family in Germany. But...

...yes, she does still have DISTANT relatives living in Germany.

I'm still not exactly sure just how distant they are.

As I understand it, Carrie's great-great-great-great (something like that) grandpa had a brother. Carrie's GGGG Grandpa came to the US, while his brother stayed in Germany. And for generations, the families have kept in touch.

Which is very cool long-term communication if you ask me.

So, back to the present-day, Carrie's family lives on a 30 acre nursery, which they own and operate.

Also very cool.

On the 22nd, we toured around the nursery a bit and spent time getting acquainted.

I really enjoyed getting to know Elsbeth who is having her own house built there at the nursery and is retiring this year, Sabine (pronounced sah bean uh), and Joern (pronounced yourn). Joern is Elsbeth's son, and Joern and Sabine are basically our age.

We also met their three-year-old son Kevin.

We'll likely have more to say about this, but it was so neat getting to practice our German with someone who speaks at our level of vocabulary and understanding in German. It made communication much easier, though it does make you feel a little funny to know that you really communicate at the level of a 3-year old.

Ah well. Such is foreign language.

On the 23rd, Sabine was nice enough to drive us in to Oldenburg.

Most people reading this probably don't know, but when I did my study abroad in 2001, I studied German at the University of Oldenburg.

I wouldn't meet Carrie for another six months, but the entire time I was studying in Oldenburg, Carrie's family in Germany was less than 15 minutes away from where I lived. In fact, on the 22nd, we had to go through Oldenburg's train station in order to get to Bad Zwischenahn.

It really is a small, small, world of amazing connections.

So, in the afternoon on October 23rd, I spent some time showing Carrie around many of the old places where I used to hang out when I was an exchange student.

The most recognizable building in Oldenburg is the Lambertikirche (Lamberti church), but the church was closed for renovations, so Carrie and I walked across to the Schlossgarten (Castle garden - now more of a city park), and took a picture of us with the Lambertikirche tower in the background.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today we went into Hamburg. Jonathan and I were fortunate once again to have Anne as our guide. I was still feeling quite tired, and found it sort of hard to focus still from our all-nighter a few nights ago. But I was still excited for the day that would come. On our way there we stopped by this castle in Ahrensburg.

We walked around the garden and took a quick peek inside.

From here we took the subway into Hamburg.

We got to see the Rathaus (city hall) of Hamburg which was newly refinished and looks great!

From here we walked along the river and took in the shops, hotels, and cafés lining it. Then we had a quick glimpse in St. Michaelis church. We didn't go up the tower this time as it was cloudy and we didn't know how much we would be able to see. An interesting point about St. Michaelis's though, is that it's the first thing ships see when coming into Hamburg Harbor.

Because the day was a bit cold and windy, we stopped at a little café for coffee and cake (and hot chocolate). It just happened to be the same café where Jonathan and Anne stopped for cake the last time they were in Hamburg together. It was fun to get to see that, and sitting upstairs looking at all the passers-by was cool too since it was set into a tiny little alley where the buildings almost touch at the roofs.

After our hands, faces, and tummies were warmed up a bit we walked to the Harbor. This is the same harbor that Jonathan's Grandma left from when she left Germany in 1938. It was fun for me to experience a little bit of Jonathan's history here.

Next we took the ferry down the river a bit.

The view from outside on top of the ferry was great, but with the salt water blowing on you, and the wind driving you down, it got really cold rather quickly, so we retreated inside. When the ferry landed (after a ferry change), we went to see the beach. The beach was a bus ride away, and then a walk down lots and lots of stairs. But it was a pretty walk, and fun to see the beach of Hamburg.

Then it was back to Hammoor for us. When we got back we had an excellent time talking with Anne and getting to know her a little better. She thought the day called for a celebration, so she broke out the champagne.

What a fantastic finish to a great day.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Our flight from Stansted left at 6:30am and we arrived in Lubeck (which is marketed by Ryan Air as Hamburg - an hour away) at 9:00am. After our sleepless night, Jonathan didn't really seem to feel the effects too much, but I did. I tried to sleep on the plane, but while I am an excellent car sleeper, my plane sleeping skills need some work still.

Once we met up with Anne Link, she took us into Lubeck to have a look around. We had breakfast together at a fun café, and then went to see the sights. We saw a church that the devil helped build,

The Lubeck Tuer

And most importantly the Niederegger store (where we found all things marzipan).

Unfortunately we weren't able to tour the factory to see where they make all that yummy almond paste and shape it into everything from potatoes to fish to the Luebeck Tuer, but that just gives us a reason to go back.

It is also unfortunate that we won't be able to bring back any marzipan as we are going to eat all of it.

(Just kidding. But really, it's definitely the best smelling thing in our luggage.)

From Luebeck we went up to the coast to a town called Groemitz. Here we had lunch and some fantastic gebrannte Mandeln (warm sugared almonds). It was a beautiful day, but a tiny bit chilly.

On the way back to Hammoor, both Jonathan and I slept most of the way.

Then Anne let us take a little nap at her house before meeting some friends to go Kegeln (Kegeln is similar to bowling, but the pins are on strings and there are only nine of them and they are set in a different configuration. (Check out our video of Kegeln soon.) We got to meet some of Anne's friends, and we had a great time. Our new Kegeln friends bought us tiny bottles of schnapps to congratulate us on our marriage.

Posted by Jonathan at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We left the flat and headed to Monument station, and walked across London Bridge. Now I had to have a picture of London bridge, because many people think that Tower Bridge (the unmistakable bridge in London) is actually London Bridge. But it's not. London Bridge is rather boring and unimpressive from a comparative perspective.

We walked across the bridge so that we could get to Borough Market, because we heard that it would be a really cool and authentic market in London.

We are so glad we went. Outside of being a really neat market, they were also having some sort of Spain celebration all weekend long, which meant that I got to have one of my favorite foods... samples!

In addition to the video I have of a lobster walking around on ice - soon to be someone's dinner (coming soon), we also got to try a tasty Italian liquor, lots of different kinds of jams and cheeses, and a few different kinds of olives. We bought a small container of these olives for the low, low price of 3 pounds (Like $6.25. Have we mentioned that London is expensive?)

We also bought a smallish loaf of sun-dried tomato foccacia bread for 2 pounds ($4.20), a smaller piece of yummy cheese for 3 pounds, and some meat for about 2 pounds. Total cost for cold sandwiches (yummy sandwiches but not super-impressive food...) later in the day? More than $20. (I believe we've mentioned that London is expensive, right?)

From the really cool Borough market, we walked along the river to the bridge you will think is more impressive, Tower Bridge.

One interesting thing we learned about Tower bridge is that when it was originally built, it created so much water backup that it actually caused the river to freeze in the winter. The original bridge stood for about 100 years, and then turned into the more recent design which is an impressive bridge, but doesn't back up the river enough to make it freeze solid.

We toured the Tower of London, which really was amazingly impressive. We've got a bunch of pictures to put up of this location, but here's one of our favorites.

When you go to the Tower of London, depending on what kinds of sightseeing you like to do, give yourself at least half a day. Take the main tour and then there are others you can do as well, especially if you get there earlier in the day. The history of the location goes back to things that the Romans built here in the 200's and 300's, and the current tower has been there (as a palace rather than a prison) for a LONG time.

You can get your own Tower of London history at Wikipedia, if you're interested in all the amazing details, but we really recommend at least four hours, if not a whole day, for this really neat place.

(And for all the women, or anyone else interested in gold and diamonds, the royal crown jewels are housed at the tower as well, and they're worthwhile seeing.)

After the tour of the Tower, done by one of the The Yeoman Warders of the tower, (otherwise known as Beefeaters - though history doesn't tell us why they got that name), Carrie and I sat by the river and ate our sandwiches. The day was cool enough that the meat and cheese stayed cold while we carried it with us, and our sandwiches were quite delicious.

After a walk to the opposite side of the tower, we went into a local pub to warm up and get some of the famous London Fish 'n' Chips (sans fish) as well as a taste tester of some local ales.

After that, we went on the "official" Jack the Ripper tour of London.

Now if someone sells you on an "official" Jack the Ripper Tour, you might be a little wary if they aren't actually coming across as a good storyteller. Our tour guide was more fact based than story based, which was a bit hard to deal with for two hours of a cold walking tour that could have been told in such great story fashion.

There we are, in the heart of where the whole thing happened, and our "Jack the Ripper Walking Tour" only took us to the sites of two the murders, while there were actually five locations for killings attributed to Jack the Ripper. (The tour would have been better if it had followed a storyline of some sort.)

I'll let Carrie comment on this more if she wants to, as she actually had a really great tour guide her first time in London, when she took the unofficial tour.

So we left London by staying up all night and catching a 3:00AM taxi to catch a 3:30AM bus. This is because we had a 6AM flight from London Stansted airport, and the London underground runs to Heathrow, but not Stansted. (Just for anyone's future reference, London has four major airports - Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, and Stansted). There is a train that goes to Stansted (Stansted Express), but not that early in the morning, so in order to catch our flight, we arranged for transportation to London-Stansted on a bus.

And our leaving London is where I'll leave you for this rather long (but hopefully interesting) post.

Here's the map of where walked today (with the exception of the walking inside the tower (for at least an hour), and the Jack the Ripper tour, which was an additional 2 hours of walking around various locations in London).

Carrie's addition to this post regarding Jack the Ripper:

When I was in London in January 2003, we found a flyer for a Jack the Ripper walking tour. We decided to go, as it was only £3 and we only had to pay if we really liked the tour. Since none of us had any money at the time, we thought that that sounded like a good idea. Our guide then was an amazing storyteller. It was what he did for a living being one of the Yeoman at the Tower of London. He guided us through the places where Jack the Ripper walked, stalked, and killed his victims (in sequential order). As we walked, he told us little tidbits about London itself, about the area of town we were in at the time, and about Jack the Ripper himself (of course). After a 3 hour walk that ended sometime after 10:30pm, I paid the £3 because I'd had a great time. I learned a lot; I was very entertained, and felt like I had seen a lot. I had also been given the guide's guess as to who Jack really was, backed up by his "facts" and was completely convinced. It was a wonderful time. It was so wonderful in fact, that I wanted Jonathan to experience it as well.

While searching online for a Jack the Ripper walking tour in London, I came across the London Walks website (and a few others of course). I couldn't find one from the tour I'd taken before, so I thought we'd go on the London Walks version. We met Judith at the designated area (along with about 60 other people), paid our £5, and were ready to go. Thankfully, they split the mass of people into two groups. I knew right away that Judith was more academically oriented than my previous beefeater guide, but I was hopeful that she would be a good storyteller as well. After the first stop, Jonathan mentioned that he felt our guide wasn't really telling us a story. We hoped it would get better. Unfortunately, it didn't. Judith took us to only two of the actual locations, and didn't tell us stories. She talked. She talked as though reading a text book to us out of order. The very last stop of the tour lasted for 20 minutes where she told us who might and who wasn't actually Jack the Ripper. The problem was that she was just giving facts without having a way for her audience to relate the facts to what we'd just been told on our walk.

If you go to London, I highly recommend taking a Jack the Ripper walking tour. However, I am afraid that I cannot recommend that you take the one lead by Judith with London Walks. While she is a very nice person, and full of information, she wasn't able to capture the audience's undivided attention.

Posted by Jonathan at 05:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Carrie and I were both feeling like we were done with Britain and ready to move on to our next destination.

Not that London's not completely incredible... because it is, and we've really enjoyed our time here.

But after visiting the Tate Modern Museum (not that impressive for us), and having a really cool dinner last night (at Dans le Noir - VERY cool!), and meeting some really cool Londoners (thanks for the great time Suzanne and Dai),

and knowing that we're still slated for the Tower of London and the Jack the Ripper tour...

(is that enough prefacing for you?)

we were kind of feeling a bit done with London.

That is...

until we got out of London.

Which is what we did today, and now we just want to have a car here and drive all over the UK finding cool things to see. (Except that driving here is a bit nerve-wracking!)

Today, we went to the most amazing castle either one of us has ever been to... Windsor Castle.

I could bore you with a bunch of stats and figures about the castle, but then you're bound to be bored with this site and leave.

Suffice it to say that if you like history, and you like artchitecture, and you like art, and/or anything about the royal family (or, if you just want to be amazed by how extravagant royalty can be), then you must carve out more than an hour for visiting Windsor castle, because there's just no way it can be covered in such a short visit.

Just plan a whole day. It's worth it.

So, let's throw in a picture or two here, so you can see a bit of what we're talking about.

We rented a car today.

...which meant getting up a little earlier than usual and getting to Heathrow airport on the Underground (Subway).

So we got a little Peugot.

And while some people may think that it's difficult to drive on the other side of the road (coming from the US to England), it's really not that difficult at all.

Here are the driving instructions they don't give you at the car rental place:

1. Forget EVERYTHING you learned about driving in the US;
2. Let go of everything your intuition tells you to do;
3. Don't drive the car on the side of the road you think you should be on.

Do these things and you will do just great driving through the English countryside.

End of manual.

Or, you can attempt to drive like we do in most parts of the world, and end up with a nerve-wracked experience.

(Incidentally, we chose the second option - sort of by default?)

I got the hang of the driving after a bit, although it wasn't without its perils stories to follow at some later date.

So, the castle just blew our minds, and we really wished for more time here, but here are a couple of pictures.

Here's a shot through the castle moat - pretty cool that they've converted it into a nice garden and fountain

A really cool courtyard in the upper part of the 13 acre grounds of the castle.

So, after leaving ourselves just enough time to really want to come back to Windsor, we decided to drive to one of the world's most visited locations.

Stonehenge

It's really a big pile of rocks. But one of the cool things about visiting Stonehenge is that the place gives off a really cool kind of peaceful feeling and is a really great experience.

Our tip for this location is to get the guided audio tour. It really explains everything and... best of all... it's free! (You don't see anything that's free in England.)

So, this is us

And this is the pile of really neat rocks.

(This is one of our favorite pictures of the trip so far.)

And then, we debated. We knew there was this really cool cathedral in Salisbury, but it meant driving further away, again on the other side of the road... (and driving back in the dark on the London highways)

We decided to go, and we are VERY glad we did.

Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury is a neat little town, and the cathedral there is AMAZING! If you get a chance, go see it.

You'll be able to see it from some distance away...

And here's the inside.

The nighttime drive back was easier than the rest of the drive, although it did involve a 2 minor mishaps in two different roundabouts and a wrong turn (which left us on the wrong side of the street), but all's well that ends well, and so hopefully we're leaving you feeling well.

We sure are feeling great!

Thank-you for following our travels and stay tuned for more!

Posted by Jonathan at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

When Jonathan returned from LA, he was really excited to take me to a few things in London. He learned about the cheese market at Borough Market (where we're going tomorrow), and this restaurant he wanted to go to. Almost the first thing that Jonathan did was make reservations for this restaurant.

He wanted it to be a surprise. Was it ever! The ambiance of the restaurant was incredible. Words cannot describe what it was like in there. So, we took a picure of what the inside looks like (we're not supposed to, so don't tell anyone).

Click here to see it.

Seriously, that is exactly what it was like. Click to read more about it... (WARNING: if you want to go to this restaurant, what follows does contain spoilers.)

Both Carrie and Jonathan recommend that if you're ever in Paris or London that you give this a try. It's amazing what you learn about others, and (more importantly) about yourself.

The name of the restaurant is Dans le Noir. The concept is that you are given a taste of what it would be like to be blind.

Here's how it works: as you walk into the restaurant, you are asked what kind of meal you would like. You have four choices: White = you can eat anything, Red = no fish, shellfish, or seafood, Blue = no meat at all (but seafood is ok), and Green = vegetarian. Then you are offered the choices of two or three courses. We each had two courses - Jonathan white (main and dessert), Carrie green (starter and main).

Then you are called by name and arranged in a single file line. You are asked to put your hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you. Then everyone is led through a dark tunnel into the dining room where everything is pitch black.

Picture the darkest room you have ever been in. Now make it so dark that there is literally not a speck of light anywhere to be seen. It's so dark in fact that it is almost lighter when you close your eyes (but not quite). Now, imagine that you have to eat a meal in this room, including pouring your own drinks, holding conversations with complete strangers, and trying not to get too many empty forkfulls of food into your mouth (or spilling too much down your shirt).

Now think about how you would clink glasses during a toast.

How do you cut your food?

How do you pass your neighbor the basket of bread without bonking them in the head?

Pour your friend some wine?

How well do you think you could do?

What about your waiter?

How do you think (s)he would do serving you your meal in absolute darkness? How does he know where you are when he hands you a plate, or serves you in a room where no one can see a thing?

The answer: he's blind.

That's the entire concept behind Dans le Noir -- that those who dine there are able to have a glimpse into what it might be like to be blind, a tiny moment where the diner can actually understand exactly what they take for granted every moment of their lives, and can have a small glimpse into what it might be like.

Dans le Noir is an absolutely amazing experience, both "politically" and self-exploratorally. Following your meal, after being escorted back to the enrance which is lighted, but dimly, you are then asked to guess what you ate. (And, for those of you keeping score...Jonathan knew what the side dish of his main was, and his dessert, but didn't know the main dish itself. Carrie knew her starter, but nothing of her main. Have you every heard of "funky cous cous" or an "Ethiopian wrap"? She hadn't either.)

Both Carrie and Jonathan recommend that if you're ever in Paris or London (or Moscow) that you give Dans le Noir a try. It's amazing what you learn about others, and (more importantly) about yourself.

(Tell them Carrie and Jonathan sent you!)

Posted by Carrie at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just got back from Los Angeles yesterday... or the day before, depending what time zone you live in.

In any case, I've been (back) here since Sunday.

I think Carrie is happy to have me back (really happy!), but I also think she enjoyed her time here in London as well.

The Altitude conference I went to in Los Angeles was truly amazing, and is the start of something that I feel will be a big movement for business in America... but I'll post about that on the Strive4impact blog at some point in the nearer future.

We are really...

...enjoying an awesome time here in London

So far, we've seen a lot of the more touristy things associated with London.

Carrie has been writing reviews of the restaurants we've eaten at on her CarriesClassics.com web site.
(Click the link to read her reviews - opens in new window.)

Westminster Abbey
We really liked Westminster Abbey, but to be honest, we were expecting more of a church and less of a monument. If you go to the abbey expecting a church, you might be a little disappointed, as it's more of a tribute to the heroes who died serving England, and those who glorified England with their life's work, than a place of worship. It's still a fascinating and cool place to be, just not quite what we expected.

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben
Not really much to see here, other than a really nice walk by the river Thames (great thing for a honeymooning couple - that's us!) and some really great photo ops.

Saint Paul's Cathedral
If you've never seen a big European Cathedral, this is one place you simply must visit.
It's mind-bogglingly huge. It's the mother church of the Church of England, and definitely left us with the feeling that we'd been some place that would be difficult to describe. We actually made it to the cathedral while there was a service going on, so we didn't have to pay to get in. (If you want to go for a service, you won't need to pay either. (Otherwise, it's like $20. But probably still worth it, depending on what kind of sightseeing you like to do.) Suffice it to say that if you can, visit Saint Paul's Cathedral.

Since our time is short here at this point (we leave for Germany on Friday morning), we've decided not to go to Scotland or Ireland.

It's a sad decision, but we know we'll see these beautiful countries at a later date, so we're saving them for a "northern Europe" trip at some point in the future.

So, with our remaining three days in London, we'll be seeing:

The Tower of London
The Tower Bridge (the famous bridge most people mistake for London Bridge)
Stonehenge
Windsor Castle
The Tate Modern museum
Borough Market (one of London's more famous markets, but only open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), so we'll go here Thursday
And the Jack the Ripper tour

So, stay tuned for pictures of these locations.

Thanks for following along with us as we travel around London!

Posted by Jonathan at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Once again, we want to thank all of you for helping to make our wedding so special, either by your attendance, or by all the things you did to make our wedding just perfect. Thank-you so much!

So... All of our wedding pictures are online. There is a fun slideshow (put together by Tom) at http://www.tomkphoto.com/0709cjk/slideshow/ and the gallery of photos is available at http://www.tomkphoto.com/0709cjk/gallery/.

Our first couple of days in London have been fabulous. We have an awesome flat where we are staying near the South Kensington underground (tube, subway, etc.) station. Thanks so much Dan and Jane! This place rocks.

So far we have seen: Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives; Big Ben and the houses of Parliment; Westminster Abbey; Picadilly Circus (not really a circus, it's the Times Square of London); "The Merchant of Venice" performed in The Globe Theatre (awesome); Trafalgar Square; Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens; Kensington Palace (Princess Diana's favorite home); and St. Paul's Cathedral (amazing - the main church of the Church of England).

That's a "quick" run down of what we've seen so far. We'll post detailed thoughts and feelings on some of these places when we do a more detailed post. Here are a few picture highlights (clicking on the smaller pictures will show you the larger version)

Parilament and London at Dusk

Jonathan with the royal horse guard

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey (back)

Carrie and Jonathan at The Globe Theatre (Shakespeare's theatre)

A lovely afternoon in Hyde Park

Posted by Jonathan at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

We had a wonderful wedding. We were so happy to get to see everyone who came from all over the country and the world. We wish we could have spent more time with all of you. We feel very blessed to have you in our lives.

Our professional pictures will be available online on Wednesday, October 3, 2007. Here's the web address where they will be posted. When we return, we will have a CD with all of the pictures on it so that we can print them for ourselves and others. You can order them through Tom's site, or you can wait for us to come back and print some off for you.

Thank you again, we love you, and we'll see you soon!

Posted by Carrie at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)