Friday, September 20, 2013

Rothenberg and Amsterdam - Exploring with friends!

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A few weeks ago our friends came to visit!  This was a major plus, since I was down and out about our whole housing situation and getting pretty bored in the hotel.  These are dear friends from our grad school / law school days.  We have all been through so much together.

Oxford summer abroad

Halloweens





Engagements


Bachelorette parties




Weddings





Moving to different cities


Deployment








And now one of our dearest is prego.  Isn't she beautiful? (Rothenberg is in the background)


She also recently published her first novel called, "Life in Plan B"  You can get a paperback or a kindle edition here: You will not be able to put it down!


Our friend being pregnant wasn't the only reason for the trip, but when the news came that we were moving to Germany these friends didn't want to miss out on seeing our new home in case little ones kept it from being feasible to fly.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to show them our residence, but we were able to enjoy great times in Wiesbaden.



Watching futbol!



We also took an overnight trip to Rothenberg.  This is a medieval city that was left untouched by the war.  We had a lot of fun shopping, eating, and walking the wall.

We stayed at the Alter Keller, and would highly recommend it.  It was super cozy and the breakfast was delicious.




We also did the Night Watchman's tour in the evening.  It was a  great way to walk around the city and get a little bit of history at the same time.  Later that night we met the watchman at a restaurant.  He downed two glasses of wine and then went out to do the next tour. That should  give you an indication of how the tour goes.  We all agreed that this is the best business venture and wished we would have thought of it first.



The main gate

Emma made her debut at the walking tour. We dodged other dogs and there wasn't one zombie incident, hooray!


She also made it out to dinner.  She did a stellar job and only yelped once when she was stepped on by the server.

Here we are walking the wall

Fancy, I know.

The crime and punishment museum was interesting.  The girls were a bit disgusted by the the torturous ways of the past.

These were masks they made people wear based on the crime they committed.


This was not an uncommon site to see.  Wiki was very good with the camera and took lots of picture of flowers with blurred out backgrounds.  Here he's getting a little advice on the angle from Moose.

This church will go down in history as our meter as to whether we should pay to do an activity.  Inside there is a relic located in the alter. It is a stone that has splinters of the cross inside.  Crazy, right?  Well, we found out it cost 2 euros to go inside and decided to skip it.  Wow, I know, what kind of people are we?  I think we were just uber tired and ready to get on the road back to Wiesbaden...I think.


At the end of the week we all went to Amsterdam for Sam's four day weekend.  We had a ton of fun exploring this city.  We learned how a city successfully becomes a bicyclist's dream.  We discovered Van Gough and Ann Frank.  We walked around waterways, ate great food, and even ventured into the red light district.  


The most beautiful place ever!  I'm so glad we went in the summer because the canals were my favorite part!

Friend dinner! Yes, we ate Thai food in Amsterdam, and it was amazing.  Yum!



The Van Gogh Museum is in Amsterdam too.  But what they don't tell you is that his most famous painting are most likely not inside.  I was so pumped to see my favorite paintings like Starry Night or Cafe Terrace.  I'm sure they were on loan at some museum in the U.S. I should really explore the museums back home.


Okay, okay, I'll stop complaining.  We did see Sunflowers.

And Almond Blossoms.  This one was my favorite because he painted it to go in the bedroom of his newborn nephew.  So sweet.



Food!




YOLO!


Sooooo glad I got to see this belly!

We never really figured out how to ride the tram.  I think we all wasted a lot of money on their "check in" and "check out" system.  If you go to Amsterdam and ride the tram your ticket is good for one hour, but if you don't swipe your card every time you enter and exit, it runs out.  Seems simple but our overly-educated bunch just couldn't get it. I think we enjoy wasting money.



This is a bicyclist's city!  It was so neat to see a fully functioning city on bicycles.  Can you see the kids riding on the bikes?  Look to the far right in the picture.  Notice, no helmets, yikes!  The only people we saw with helmets were definitely americans.






The building is falling.


Our last dinner together. :(

What an amazing trip!  Lots of much needed friend time.  We hope to see many more of our 
friends, so we can keep exploring. Please, please schedule a visit!!!!


2 comments:

  1. Looks like so much fun! We went to Rothenburg and did the exact same things you did! Minus the booze though because I was like, 13 at the time. ;) Gorgeous views though. Super jealous!!

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    Replies
    1. I'm loving your Korea pics too! Maybe we should do an Army 'life-swap' while we're OCONUS. Lol, I'd be so lost for the whole week...maybe we should just visit each other instead.

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