Friday, February 22, 2013

Trier

For the long, holiday weekend, we had originally been tossing around the idea of going to Paris.

That was a little pricey though.

Plus, my mom had to leave to London Monday morning for work, so we all just lounged and relaxed this weekend. On Monday, Ray, my stepdad and I all went to Trier; about 45 minutes from home.

Back during the Roman Empire, Trier was the "Rome" of the North. It had Roman baths, an amphitheater and a grand city wall. Today, the ruins are the oldest Roman remains north of the Alps. Most structures dated back at least 2000 years. Everything was within easy walking distance so we spent the afternoon roaming and snapping pictures. The downtown area is now full of stores and restaurants, so I picked up a coin purse there too (when I got here, I had three different nations currencies in my wallet. That wasn't working out so well in the checkout line).

Porta Nigra- the gate to the ancient city of Trier. It's been made black by centuries of pollution.

This is the entrance into the basement of the Imperial Baths. If the baths had ever been completed, this is where the water would have run, heating and cooling the rooms above.
Another hallway of the Imperial Baths. It was dark and dank down there. Definitely not where I'd want to be during the zombie apocalypse.

This is my favorite picture of us from the trip. Right after I had been alerted that there crumbs on my face. How embarrassing...

Perspective. This structure is more than a thousand years old.

In medieval times, a noble family took over the 'ruined' baths and turned it into their home.

This amphitheater is thought to have held 20,000 people at times. There are 15 cage rooms around the ring where animals and gladiators were held just before being released into the arena. Walking into the small rooms and thinking of who or what had been held there centuries ago was an eerie feeling. 

Back in the downtown area where even fountains have history and awe-striking powers.


Trier was an excellent day trip. There's still plenty more to see, so it may merit another visit, in the summer though.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Little Town...

"It's a quiet village. Every day like the one before."

Never have truer words been spoken. Thanks Belle, I knew someone would understand me.

We live in a little place, with probably no more than 4,000 people (that's the size of my entire high school, where I at least knew almost everyone's name). And up until a week ago our days never varied. Without a car, and confined to a small village, there really isn't much to do.

Graciously though, we got jobs last week! Ray and I will be working in a child & youth program on an air force base about 20 minutes from home. The pre-employment process for the government fortunately requires a lot of hoop jumping and so we've been running around a lot getting physicals, immunizations, tests, background checks, fingerprints, etc. It's been quite the exhausting (but welcomed) diversion.

Next on our To Do list now, is buy a car! So far we're leaning towards a Volkswagon Golf, I think they're kinda cute, in a European sort of way...

  
image source
Other than that...

We've had random snow storms that cover everything with a few inches, and then it all melts off within a day or two. The other morning it had snowed overnight and the sky was bright blue when I woke up. I took the opportunity of the gorgeous day to take a walk and document our sweet little village.

Down the street to our village's church. It rings every hour on the hour!

This is the street our house is on- it's got "speed trees" instead of speed bumps to get you to slow down. Slalom, baby!

This field is just behind our neighborhood. Pictured is a neighboring village.

Our village's skyline- that's the church on the right.

Home, sweet home!
 It's a good place. We like it. We're super excited to start our jobs and get a car so we can start venturing out more!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Venice Carnival

Did you know going to a masquerade was on my bucket list? Well now you do.

Did you also know that this weekend I got to cross that off my bucket list? No? Let me tell you about it...

A friendly family out here invited our family to join them this past weekend as they attended Carnival in Venice, Italy. The price of the trip was phenomenal and it included a masquerade ball! So of course we said yes, and we began planning.

On Friday afternoon we flew over the gorgeous Swiss Alps, still snow capped, and rising jaggedly above the clouds. When we touched down in Italy, we took a quick bus to Venice and then hopped onto the vaporetto (Venice's water boat/bus) to get to our hotel. It took some meandering but we finally made it to our hotel along the Grand Canal.

Saturday brought heavy rain clouds that dumped all day long, but they also included a silver lining. The family we were with, having attended Carnival before, told us that wearing our costumes all day Saturday was the norm. So we woke up that morning and donned our best 18th century Venetian attire complete with masks.

Out into the rain we went.

The downpour had discouraged many from wearing their elaborate costumes and when we got to Saint Mark's Square people were huddled around the fringe of the square taking shelter under the roofing of various stores and cafes. Suddenly, we walked into the group and became instant stars! We were the only ones brave enough to go full costume, which is what everyone came to see at Carnival, so we ended up standing and posing with tourists for hours on end as they oggled our costumes! All morning long, this was our view:


Becoming an instant celebrity made up for the rain that continued all day and soaked right through our shoes. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to dry out so we'd be ready to dance away the evening at the masquerade.

The masquerade had classic Venetian dishes (read: fish) that were quite nice. There was some entertainment, and then the dancing began around 10:30PM. Half the fun was just soaking up the ambiance, the other half was admiring the costumes of those who really went all out.

This is my mom- she got a super cool mask.

This group of 8 had matching costumes, but mostly I loved their wigs.


We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. We crashed and woke up to a bright blue sky outside. Hooray! Ray and I split from our larger group on Sunday and did some exploring on our own. Our first stop was the Ponte dell'Accademia, the bridge right next to our hotel. We'd noticed love locks along the bridge and wanted to add our own. We locked our love up tight, sealed it with a kiss, and dropped the key into the Grand Canal below. Romantic, I know.

Here's our love lock- forever in Venice.

After that, we meandered a few streets down to the Ca'Rezzinico, which an 18th century home turned museum. We were the only ones there so we had the entire mansion to ourselves to admire the endless frescoes and framed artwork. Plus they had some stellar views from the top floor.


We hopped back on the vaporetto after that and since we had a two day pass, we were able to quickly jump off to get a better look at this building:
 St. Mary's church. We arrived just in time to make a quick walk through and hear the organ start playing before it was closed to the public for the day.

Back on the water bus one more time to get to St. Mark's Square so we could see more costumes, and go into St. Mark's Basilica. It was gorgeous- the last time I was in Venice I didn't get to go inside, and I'm so glad we went this time. The mosaics were intricate and beautiful, and we got to experience that reverent awe that comes when entering old landmarks such as this one.

The view of the square from the balcony of the Basilica- teeming with Carnival-goers!
At this point, it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and meet up with the group for an early dinner before departing the floating city. Our two final purchases were gelatto, and a mask ornament for our collection (Ray and I both collected Christmas ornaments before we met, and now we get one from each place we visit). We picked up this ornament as we were rushing to the bus, we didn't allot time very well. We ran past a stall, picked up the first ornament we saw and thrust the two euro at the woman standing there. She tried to call out to us and give us change that we'd mistakenly thrown in, but we were already booking it down the walkway and called back to her to just keep it.

Venice got Ray's seal of approval and we hope to go back soon to do more sight seeing and eat more gelatto. Here's some more of our favorite pictures from the trip.

Just before we got turned into stars, or suns in Ray's case.

This is the canal entrance to our hotel.

Snappin' a quick photo some some cool costumes by St. Mark's.

Ray took this photo- isn't it awesome?

This group was on the vaporetto with us as we were leaving. I loved their "Under the Sea" theme.

Eating gelatto and happily sitting on the steps leading into the canal.