Happy Holidays!!

Well, everyone has been asking for snapshots of our place, so here you go. Have to say, we don't really live in a very quintessential English building...it's a newer high rise, but it's comfy and spacious and become our home for the time being. Take a peek if you like...










We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! Conrad is headed back to the Seattle area (Gig Harbor) to spend Christmas with his family, and I'm headed to NY/NJ to spend the holiday with mine. We're then off to Mallorca, Spain together for New Year so can't wait for that.


If anyone has international dialing access, my UK mobile is +44 788 148 4648 and Conrad's is +44 751 536 5403, and we'll have those on us while at home. Hope I get to meet up with many of you in NYC on the 26th or 27th possibly, and I'll also be sending good vibes cross-country for the Seahawks this Sunday since Conrad's going to the game.


Here's to a great 2008--hope everyone is happy and healthy in the New Year!

Thanksgiving weekend spent in Bath, England

We didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving this year, but still had a great time. Here are some pix of our trip--enjoy!


This is the lovely B&B we stayed in (not too far from where Jane Austen spent many years actually):





We were about a five minute walk from the center of town and got a nice view of the Pulteney Bridge on our walk in each day. It happens to only be 1 of 4 in the world left that actually has shops within the bridge (1 other is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, but not sure what the other two are?!). We couldn't ever miss the beautiful architecture of Bath Abbey either!







Heading further into town, we found the oldest house in Bath left standing (which is the home of the famous Sally Lunn Bun--which of course we sampled, and its coffee house), along with Lord Nelson's house, and the Jane Austen historic center.




One of our favorite parts of the trip was of course going into the Roman Baths on Saturday...




where we did cure all that was ailing us with that fine-tasting fresh water straight from the pumps and felt like a king and queen by the time we were done! ;)




And on Sunday, before we took off for Stonehenge, we found a great, hidden (to us, anyway) cafe where of course Mr. Sweet Tooth ordered hot chocolate and chocolate cake for breakfast!




Then it was off for the hour drive to Stonehenge to walk around in a circle for an hour and then drive back immediately after. Definitely worth seeing; just wish we could've gotten a bit closer, I guess.



A very relaxing, much needed weekend-getaway! We would definitely go back again with any visitors--hint, hint.

The Best Food Market EVER!

This past weekend we went to Borough Market, located just by the London Bridge. What a great market! I have to say, it combined all the best aspects of Pike Place Market and every other farmers market I've ever been to, as well. It had everything you can think of and we either it sampled it there or took some home with us to do so.

Below: C at one of the market entrances, posing next to some fresh game (of which we ate later in a venison sandwich...mmmm), smiling eating some £1 creme caramel, and of course a stand selling bangers.





Below: cheese glorious cheese!, every kind of delicious stuffed Spanish olive you could imagine, more treats (truffles, baklava, etc), and one of the many great flower stands which I can never resist.

Another reason to come visit. ;)

Football (American) in London

Well the Giants faired better in the game here in London vs the Dolphins (even though it wasn't a pretty one), than they did last night against the Cowboys. Even though it wasn't a fabulous football game, we had a really good time with Anne and Brian at Wembley, as well as throughout the rest of the week during their visit here. Here are a few pictures--enjoy!

Below: A beautiful snapshot of Big Ben lit up on a Saturday evening along the Thames, AND Me, Conrad, Anne and Brian on a Thames river cruise that same night (it was actually a Dolphins cruise, but don't tell anyone!)



Below: After the cruise, we hit up a Halloween party at Anne and Brian's hotel...so did some guy dressed as Borat, AND Conrad fueling up before the game started.



Below: Giants and Dolphins (and US and UK) flags flown at Wembley during the game, AND Anne and I at the game. (The two guys behind us were Aussies who I think after watching the game still thought that Australian Rules Football was cooler.)

Definitely a great time...see, the rest of you should come visit too! :)

New phone number

Hi all--

Our old US cell phone (# +1 206.304.9191) is no longer in use. We're going to try and get a US number through Vonage for our home landline, but probably won't have that for a while. In the meantime, you can reach us at +44 0788 148 4648.

Thanks!

Gutten Tag!

Ok, so we finally found some time within the past two weeks to update this... as you saw in the previous post, we found a place to live, but sorting out other details has been let's say a bit of a challenge (ie. it taking 3 weeks to set up a bank account and turn on a phone line at home).

BUT...we did get to relax during a recent trip to Munich and Salzburg two weekends ago to celebrate Conrad's bday. We flew into Salzburg that Saturday morning and then drove two hours to Munich to hit up the last weekend of Oktoberfest there--we had a great time just hanging out downtown and then exploring the different beer gardens nearby for the rest of the day--I even managed to get swarmed by some friendly Germans. :)

We then drove back to the Salzburg area (to be more specific, to a small mountain village named Hinterthal) and spent the next two days there. The fresh mountain air was so refreshing and we really enjoyed our stay at the retreat there. On Sunday, we went to a castle, which is right up Conrad's alley so we nearly spent all day there. The name of it was Hohenwerfen Castle and it was most recently (well only a few hundred years back anyway) used as a falconry hunting ground (and before that, it was used as a fortress to protect Catholic bishops in the area from invading Protestants). Here are some views from our hotel and of the castle itself:

We watched a fighting reenactment as well as their bird show, Conrad got to try on a bit of knight's armor and play with some weapons, we enjoyed a great lunch (nothing better than tons of schnitzel and spaetzle!), and we then went on a stunning tour of the castle:

We then drove back to our hotel and decided to go on a group torch-lit hike led by one of their guides...it was a nice way to work off all the spaetzle and beer from earlier in the day!

Then finally on Monday (Conrad's birthday), we spent the entire day in downtown Salzburg. As soon as we arrived around lunchtime, we were starved so we grabbed some brats (and cheese of course!). I'm not sure which food we enjoyed best during our stay--spaetzle or brats?!

We then cruised around downtown exploring the main shopping street Getreidegasse (including Mozart's birthplace/Geburtshaus), followed by a tour that took us around the greater downtown area to further view the beautiful scenery (like at the Mirabellgarten or the Altstadt, the entire view of downtown with the fortress guarding over it) and architecture (like Leopold's Castle, which is unfortunately owned by Harvard now--boo!) that surrounded the city. Some of you may find a few of these pictures to remind you of a classic movie--The Sound of Music!

We then ended the day getting Conrad a special birthday cake--a Sacher torte, an original-type from the Hotel Sacher, and heading off to dinner at the oldest existing wine bar in Salzburg. Unfortunately we don't have pix from either of those, but we'll leave you with one we took on our way to both of those places--sure you'll enjoy it. :) Auf Wiedersehen! More to come soon...