England: Cambridge and Road Trip Part 1

After our time in France and Germany, we flew to England to spend most of the remainder of our trip with my sister Rachel, her husband Jacob, and their 18-month-old Gavin. The first part of our time with them, we checked out some of the sights not far from where they live. Below are a couple of photos of Cambridge. 

Above is a photo of Melissa at St. Catherine's College in Cambridge. Melissa spent a summer studying Shakespeare in Cambridge during college. 

After spending a couple of days in and around Jacob and Rachel's village, we took off together on a road trip. Our first stop was York. Pictured above is the Minster of York, an impressive cathedral. 

We also stopped at town called Alnick (rhymes with "panic") where the main attraction for us was Barter Books. Recently listed as one of the world's 20 most beautiful bookstores, Barter is also the place where the now-famous "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster was discovered. Apparently, this poster was intended to keep up people's spirits during World War II but was never used.

While in Alnick, we also stopped for fish and chips with mushy peas. Yummy!

For more photos from this part of our trip, check out Rachel's blog.(I highly recommend her blog because Rachel is an outstanding photographer!) 

Melissa's 30th Birthday

We celebrated my 30th birthday in Friedrichshafen, a town on Lake Constance. We stayed at a really cool place, Gasthof Rebstock, which felt like an old-timey tavern. We had dinner in the gasthof (guesthouse) our first night there and noticed that nearly everyone in the restaurant seemed to know each other. Mike asked our server if the diners were local, and she said that about half of the people in the place come there to eat all the time. I didn't take photos of our food, but it was some of the best German food we had. Mike ate a schweineshaxe (basically a whole ham hock) and I had spargel (thick, white asparagus) on ham and toast with hollandaise sauce. It was amazing.

I had a beautiful and very memorable birthday!

At Lake Constance

We rented bicycles from our bed and breakfast

Rode through beautiful apple orchards (and had apple strudel for dessert that evening!)

Had a picnic lunch in the small town of Langenargen

Birthday dinner next to the lake was whitefish (from the lake). One of the few times we didn't eat pork for dinner while in Germany!

Munich & Fuessen

Munich

After we'd spent a few days in Paris, we took a night train from Paris to Munich, Germany. When we made our plans, we had no idea that we'd be in Munich on the day of the biggest European soccer game of the year - the Super Bowl of European soccer. London Chelsea was traveling to Munich to play Bayern Munich to see who would top the European Champions League. 

We got to Munich the morning of the big game, and by 9am the city was buzzing with excitement. Fans wearing red Bayern Munich jerseys and Lederhosen were partying downtown, chanting and signing their team's fight songs. It was a great atmosphere! (Unfortunately, Munich lost the big game.)

Munich football fans -- I didn't catch the ones wearing Lederhosen!

 In the English Gardens, where we had lunch with a couple from Ireland.

The famous Glockenspiel at Marienplatz

 Fuessen

After spending most of the day in Munich, we rented a car and drove to a little town called Fuessen (which means "feet" in German). The town is situated at the feet of the Alps, so the name is appropriate.


In another stroke of good luck, we happened to be in Fuessen for a parade celebrating 150 years of the town's volunteer fire department. Being there for the parade, which was not a typical tourist attraction, made us feel like we were experiencing the local flavor. Melissa loved all the Lederhosen!

Our rental car

Some parade-goers in Fuessen

One of the firefighting wagons

And a firefighting VW van!

A band in traditional Bavarian dress

Volunteer firefighters

Neuschwanstein

Our original reason for coming to Fuessen was to see Neuschwanstein castle, King Ludwig II's romanticized medieval castle built in the 1880's. During our tour of the castle, we learned that Ludwig was obsessed with the Middle Ages and nicknamed Neuschwanstein, "the Grail  castle," imagining that castles like his would have figured prominently in mythic quests for the Holy Grail.


As you can see from the photos of Munich and Fuessen, the setting was idyllic and the weather was absolutely perfect!


The food

Meats in Munich

Melissa enjoying a bratwurst

And Mike

Every meal in Germany = meat and potatoes

Paris

Mike and I just got back from the best trip ever: 18 days together in Europe. We had many things to celebrate, including my 30th birthday, our 5th wedding anniversary, and Mike's graduation from University of Wyoming with a master's degree in public administration. We felt like a vacation was the perfect way to mark the occasion(s). We're going to write a few posts to share our favorite pictures and stories from the trip. I'll start with Paris.

The sites:

The food:

This chocolate macaron was the best cookie of my life.

Best parts:

• The wall-sized Monet paintings at Musee de l'Orangerie
• Cruise down the Seine
• Breathtaking stained glass at Ste. Chapelle
• Breakfast at cafes near our hotel where we heard no one speaking English -- felt like we were eating with the locals!

LOEX in Columbus, OH

I recently returned from the LOEX annual conference in Columbus, Ohio. LOEX is the big annual library instruction conference, and I got to give a presentation with my friend Kennedy, who is a political science instructor at UW. Our presentation went really well, and I came away with several new ideas for teaching from other presentations.

Kennedy and me after our presentation

Also, Columbus is more exciting than I expected, with great food, a cool art museum, and a super-funky independent bookstore.

Dinner at Sidebar 122

Ice cream at Jeni's

At the Columbus Art Museum

Yves Saint Laurent at DAM

Mike and I made a trip to Denver on Saturday for two reasons:

1. One of my good friends from high school, Zac, is currently in Denver with the show Wicked and we got to have brunch with him. It was so nice to catch up and hear how things are going for Zac.
2. The Denver Art Museum has the Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective on display right now. It was fantastic! (Mike was not thrilled about going to see haute couture on display, but he admits that he enjoyed it much more than expected.) There were a few themes in the exhibit: 

Women's liberation through pantsuits -- fashion mirroring art -- fashion as art. I loved the exhibit, and recommend that you see it if in Denver between now and July 8.

Master's in Public Administration

Mike is just a week away from completing his (2nd) master's degree, and I'm very proud of him. He's excelled in his classes, even while working full time as an advisor in student success services, and he received an award last week as the Outstanding Graduate in the MPA Program. Way to go, honey!