European Dream

Surprise! We just got back from a 2 week vacation to Europe! It was an amazing vacation, and so great to actually be able to spend some time with each other. Our adventure included visiting: Rome, Prague, Southern Germany and Austria. We managed to travel by practically every single type of transportation: car, air, train, bus, metro, boat, tram and of course…FOOT! We walked and walked and walked. I bet on average we walked approximately 10 miles per day. I thought that my feet would fall off on more than one occasion, my calves and legs have never been more sore, but it was well worth it. I will do this post in 4 sections - one for each country that we traipsed across.

Our first stop: Roma

We had only a vague idea of where our “hotel” was. We were going to be staying in what we thought was a quaint little bed and breakfast. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Danny confirmed with the reservation center about when we would be arriving on multiple occasions, so we didn’t think we would have a problem. We wandered the streets of Rome with all our luggage for about an hour looking for the right street, and the right name. We thought we had finally found it when we saw a little place with the same name, so we rang the bell and went in. It turns out that the place we booked through has three different locations all with the same name. We had to go to a little internet café to find the phone number. When we called the man to ask for directions, we found out that he doesn’t actually live in Rome, but a few hours away and that the place that we are renting is actually his apartment. We were totally bummed out because we had our days planned out meticulously since we were only going to be there for a few days. We didn’t want to lose any time, so we hauled our luggage a few blocks to the train station and left it there in a little holding place. We then made our way to…THE COLOSSEUM! However, on our way there we found a gigantic cathedral called Saint Marry Maggiore.

We walked around the Colosseum for a couple hours before we had to go meet the guy at our “hotel.” Luckily he was there this time, but when we went in, a very overpowering smell came upon us. It smelled like an old folks home, to the max. I had to hold my breath. We got everything settled and headed to our room which was just down a tiny hallway. Our room didn’t stink which was good. We changed, got cleaned up a bit and headed back to the Colosseum. We did a tour of the inside and then walked around the city a bit afterwards. The night ended by eating real Italian Spaghetti and Lasagna and stopping for Gelato on the way back.
Day two was crazy…a lot of sights and even more walking! Here’s the breakdown of the day. We first went to Vatican City which was pretty cool. We started off at St. Peter’s Basilica, which is HUGE! We then made out way to the Vatican Museums.

The Vatican Museam tour ended with Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel. It was awesome, beautiful, big, and simply amazing. We weren’t supposed to take pictures, but I managed to sneak this one. Don’t worry, it was without the flash so it won’t damage the paintings!

Vatican City was almost an all day thing, but we did manage to make it to the Borghese Gallery Museum after much walking, getting lost, and a lot of foot pain. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful place to get lost though. It was just a gigantic green park with flowers, and huge trees. Day three was really cool. We saw Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, Capitoline Hill, The Roman Forum, and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Surprisingly, we didn’t get lost one time on this day, which was great for my feet. (Pictures are in order of the aforementioned list)

Our next stop? Prague….so stay tuned.

Home Improvements

Well, it's that time of year. Spring is here...FINALLY!! We are once again trying to improve the little shack we live in. It's hard to have such a big yard with so much potential, with out trying to make use of it. You see, when we moved in last August, our yard looked much like this, only the weeds/grass was about 3 feet tall and there were stumps everywhere! (This image courtesy of google images)Dan really surprised me when I came home from Peru. He had removed the 9 or more stumps in our yard, cleaned up a lot of dead trees AND...built us a garden. Not just any garden, but a big, wonderful garden. He wants to make our own salsa this year, and I just want fresh fruits and veggies. SO, here is the breakdown. We planted peas, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, tomatos, squash, cilantro, peppers, beans, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and golden raspberries. It's going to be amazing!

Dan built this drip system so that we don't have to worry about forgetting to water the garden. This little beauty will do it all for us. Isn't he handy?

This is our "fruit garden" The other is our "vegetable garden"

We also converted the pile of dirt and weeds in the front of our house into a flower garden. We got a smorgesboard of flowers. I don't remember many of the names of them, just ones I thought looked pretty.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Chloe loved helping me plant the flowers. She also thouroughly enjoyed eating every single weed I pulled out!!

Our next project: removing the remaining stumps and getting real grass everywhere accross the yard. Wish us luck, it's a lot of ground to cover! Literally