Ok, it's been a while...

Ok, so since we're a good 8 months behind since we last posted anything substantial, we're going to go with the hopes of the whole 'a picture is worth a thousand words' thing really working here. So, without further ado, here's a whole bunch of pictures from our travels dating back to this past May through October--enjoy!

Below are photos from our travels in and around Dublin, Ireland back in May. Those immediately below are from our day spent right in central Dublin. There are pictures of famous O'Connell Street, St Patrick's Cathedral, the Molly Malone statue, Ha' Penny Bridge, Temple Bar, The Book of Kells in Trinity College, and of course our lovely Guinesses from the Guiness Brewery itself.
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Another day, we took a trip to a famous Irish stud farm and gardens, which were about 20 mins outside of Dublin (and closer to our hotel, which was more in the countryside):

And on our last day in Ireland, we took a tour which led us about an hour to two outside of Dublin, where we stopped at the Avoca handweavers village (where they specially weave wool blankets, scarves, etc.). They also had some tasty treats at their kitchen...the strawberries and fresh whipped cream was delicious!



On that same tour, we also stopped at an old Celtic village and now burial ground:

In May, we also went to Amsterdam...two of our favorite things to do there, visiting the Van Gogh Museum and going on a canal tour:

In June, my Mama and Papa visited and we took them to all the tourist must-sees in London and in Paris:

Here's a few snaps from my trips to Oslo, Norway and Brussels, Belgium back in June. Unfortunately they were both in and out work trips, but we had two lovely dinners with the teams there. To sum it up, they were each aout seafood and beer, respectively : )



In August, I had another work trip to Zurich, Switzerland...LOVED the pot after pot of fondue we had at a dinner while there:

Later that month, Conrad and I took a little day trip to Richmond to stroll through the park and along the river there:

My cousin Louie and his wife Marlene and friend Mike also visited us in London:

Conrad's dad, Jeff, also visited with us in August:

In early September, we went to Greece for our friend Libby's birthday--we can't wait to get back there!:

In October, I had a few more work trips, this time to Helsinki Finland and to Prague Czech Republic (my 2nd time in the latter, so less pictures from there):

Wow!

This summer is just flying by! We can't believe our last post was back in May. We've been quite busy since: we actually were in Amsterdam and Dublin in May, my Mama and Papa and friend Abby all visited in June, and then it was to the East Coast for my sister Erica's pre-wedding festivities. We'll get respective pictures up soon--in the meanwhile, we hope everyone's having a great summer. xoxo, Jenn and Conrad

Dobrý den!

That's 'hello' in Czech...we were in Prague about 3 weeks ago and really enjoyed our stay. We traveled again with our friends Libby and Scott and I think we all agreed that Prague was one of the more unique cities we've all traveled to so far. There was just enough to see and do, but not too many touristy things, so that you felt like you could really experience the culture.

We started off our first day there again just exploring, venturing into a hidden lunch spot that served great local food, walking through Old Town and across Charles Bridge and just relaxing in a pub with some Budweiser Budvar (yes, that's a different Bud than we're all familiar with!) before we had to get ready for dinner.

Now dinner that night...this was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We went to one of the top five restaurants in Prague called The Santa Klara and had an incredible experience. The restaurant is built within the hillsides of a vineyard and it's been rumored that Brangelina were even there a few months back. ;)

The next day we went to Prague Castle and the area around it...including St. Nicholas church, the views from its tower, the castle itself, Golden Lane (a renovated street where iron workers used to reside), and relaxing in the castle courtyard.

The last day we were there we just hung out in Old Town Square again having lunch in beer tent and hunting around for some souvenirs--bohemian crystal, nesting dolls, and marionettes are quite popular there--we ended up with a crystal bowl and one nesting doll designed with traditional local colors and symbols.

Was a nice way to end the trip (before I had to travel straight to Munich for work, and Conrad had to wait in the airport for 7 hours because all BA flights were really delayed due to the snow in London that day!)...

Easter in Venice

Well this posting is long overdue, so we'll make this short and sweet. We spent Easter in Venice-it was Conrad's first time there and my second (I had been before with my best girlfriends in college one Spring Break). We traveled there with our friends Libby and Scott. Below is a picture of the four of us sharing a boat ride from the airport to our apartment, a view of The Rialto Bridge from our boat ride, as well as a lit up gondola we passed by on our way to dinner that night:

The next day we woke up to explore the rest of the city. The apartment we were staying in wasn't too far from The Rialto Bridge so we crossed that every day, going in and out of nearly every store in it, catching the view of the Grand Canal from it quite often, as well as hitting up the Rialto food market now and again.

We made it to St Mark's Square later that day and then Murano Island the next day to check out the blown glass for which it's famous:

Then on Easter Sunday we managed to take a gondola ride through some smaller canals and into the Grand Canal, and ended the evening (and the trip pretty much) with bellinis at Harry's Bar followed by a lovely dinner at Cipriani's Fortuny restaurant.

Another great trip!

Oui oui!

After a very quick trip by train (from London, it's only a little over a 2 hour journey), we were ready to enjoy our weekend in Paris. Our hotel was conveniently located close to the Eiffel Tower and really within walking distance of most other main attractions as well. We took it easy on Friday night after we got in and took a nice little stroll to see the tower lit up at night, and then called it an early one so we could get a head start on Saturday.

We woke up, had some wonderful quiches for breakfast at a cafe nearby our hotel, and headed straight to the Louvre from there. We probably could've spent all day (or weekend) there, but limited our time to seeing the most famous pieces and then moved on after about 2 1/2 hours or so.

Below: Conrad and I in front of the Louvre Pyramid, and The Wedding Feast at Cana

Below: Venus de Milo, and The Mona Lisa (sorry for the glare; it's encased)



Two warriors (no, Conrad isn't one of them ;)): Athena and Marcus Aurelius



My favorite sculpture there, Winged Victory.

We then headed for a walk down The Seine and to see Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame. (We also managed to stop off at a cafe along our walk, and had some awesome steak tartare with pomme frites!)

We then spent the rest of the afternoon doing a little bit of window shopping, as we made our way back to our hotel to get ready for dinner at a restaurant that a former co-worker of mine had recommended, L'Ambassade d'Auvergne. I wish we had some pictures of the food we had there because it was all so amazing from the cheese and mash side dish to the spectacular chocolate mousse dessert, but I can leave you with one image instead...

Conrad, the chef, who was so inspired by the mousse we had in Paris that he ran home after work one day this past week to make a batch himself:

We planned to go out to a popular bar, Buddha Bar, after dinner but since we could barely move we just headed straight back to the hotel so we could again get another early start on the day (on Sunday).

Unfortunately we didn't have as clear and sunny of a day on Sunday as we did on Saturday, and this was the day we chose to go to the top of The Eiffel Tower, but I guess in reality it didn't matter too much--everything looks ant size no matter what. I'm really glad we went to Paris this time of year as well because the lines for attractions were not bad at all, ie. we were in line for maybe a total of 15 mins to get all the way to the top of the tower.

We then made our way over to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees, where we stopped for a nice midday meal (of oysters, champagne, and creme brulee!), as well as some browsing in the HQ Louis Vitton store. :)

With only a few hours left in the day, we headed to N. Paris by taxi up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur (which are on the highest hilltop in all of Paris) before we had to head back to our hotel to collect our bags.

Below: Centre of Montmartre where artists famouly collect to sketch, and Sacre-Coeur, the Catholic basilica at the top of the hill

Below: View of central Paris from the hilltop, and the famous Moulin Rouge (at the bottom of the hill)

Again, another great trip! I can't wait to go back and go on a riverboat lunch or dinner cruise along The Seine next time, and perhaps spend a few more days there than we did this time (just so my feet don't feel like they're about to fall off the next day!). We're off to Venice for Easter, so come back and visit shortly after that for more pictures and details...au revoir!